Cooking

“Pasta with some vegetables” is a simple enough meal that I wouldn’t normally write anything about it, I make variants on this all the time with whatever vegetables are in the garden or fresh from the market. However, this particular version was better than usual so I’m jotting down some notes-to-future-self: I boiled a large pot of salted water (always the slowest step on our stove…) I melted a few Tbsp butter in a skillet, then added crushed garlic, corn kernels, and halved cherry tomatoes. I let this cook for maybe 5 minutes on medium-low heat (to avoid browning the butter or the garlic), then added some salt and black pepper. ...

Years ago I settled on a basic maple pecan scones recipe that I’ve made dozens of times. I made a variant on it today that turned out well so wanted to jot down some notes to remember it: Same basic recipe Swap in 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill buckwheat flour instead of the cup of whole wheat flour Mix in about a half cup* of roughly-chopped pistachios instead of the pecans and “pecan flour” Mix in about a cup of pitted and halved fresh sour cherries I splashed in a little extra maple syrup because of the tart cherries The dough was wetter than I’m used to (likely due to the cherries and different behavior of the buckwheat flour), but I didn’t add more flour– I tried baking as is. They took about 22 minutes at 425F but still fully baked. ...

I’m reasonably happy with how this marmalade turned out, tart, sweet, lemony, but not especially bitter. I took a few jam-making books out of the library, and found Jam Session and The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook most informative: It started with a 16-pound backyard Meyer Lemon* harvest and a good wash-and-scrub: I decided to only use 6 pounds for the marmalade, and juiced, zested, and froze the rest of the lemons in ice cube trays, for summer lemonade… ...

Simple sausage rolls, made easy by buying both premade puff pastry dough and sausage. This is less a recipe than quick-notes-to-self, after doing a few experiments: Defrost the frozen puff pastry (from Dufour) in the fridge overnight. Preheat the oven to 425F. Caramelize three onions: cook 10 minutes covered at medium-high heat to soften, then cook uncovered another 45 minutes or so on medium-low, stirring occasionally. I deglazed the pan with a Tbsp of water twice when they stuck. Carefully unfold the puff pastry and lightly roll it out (not trying to roll it thinner– just to smooth out some ripples/seams from where it had been folded). Lay out some ground sweet italian sausage (already seasoned and salted) in a line, top with the caramelized onions. Roll it up and brush with egg yolk wash (next time: roll a bit more snug / cylindrical) Slice it into a few pieces (see below: next time leave them twice as long so there’s less exposed end for sausage to bubble out of) Bake 8-10min at 425, until the pastry has puffed up significantly and started to brown: ...

I’ve braised a whole brisket (10-14 lbs) once or twice, but generally if I’m cooking that much meat for a party I prefer to smoke it. But maybe once a year for a smaller dinner I’ll braise a 4-6lb piece of brisket in the oven. I don’t seem to have taken many photos, but I’m copying quick notes here so I can find them later. Preheat oven to 275F Heat a little oil in a dutch oven on the stovetop Brown each side of the brisket and set it aside Roughly chop onions, carrots, and celery (I sometimes include parsnips) Brown those aromatics in the initial brisket fat Deglaze the pot with some red wine Add garlic cloves, bay leaves, a can of crushed tomatoes (or fresh roma tomatoes if I have them), a little tomato paste, thyme, savory, several large pinches of salt Add the brisket back in Add a cup of wine and a few cups of water or stock, to half-submerge it Cover the dutch oven and put it in the oven to braise until ‘fork tender’ I pull it from the oven and rest it under foil for half an hour or more while I put the cooking liquid to use: ...

I’ve always enjoyed lentils as a quick-to-cook legume, and at some point I picked up Tarla Dalal’s “Dals” cookbook. Between that and living near Vik’s Market in Berkeley I had an excuse to try a range of dals (which I realize refers to more than just ’lentils’). Over the past few years I’ve gravitated towards chana dal (small split chick peas), and this general preparation– a hybrid of Mark Bittman’s “Chana Dal, New Dehli Style” and recipes from the above cookbook. Chana dal doesn’t cook quite as quickly as, say, red lentils (~70 minutes vs. 15) but if I’m already making rice or something else, how fast the legumes cook isn’t what limits how-long-until-dinner. And I enjoy the flavor and texture. ...

With a general shift of online interaction to social media, group chats, and forums (reddit, etc), and the death of Google Reader (R.I.P.), I and many folks I know drifted away from personal blogs or websites over the past decade. Yet– of all the little web/blog hobby projects I’ve had over the years, this is one I still refer back to. Just last week I decided to cook some tandoori-style chicken and Googled ‘robotmusteat tandoor chicken’ to jog my memory on the yogurt marinade I’d used five years ago, since this is the only place I wrote it down. ...

This one-pan baked polenta with greens and eggs from the NY Times Coronavirus Cooking series was easy and satisfying and took about an hour. I started with half an ear of corn and a whole large shallot (minced) sautéed in butter, and baked them with polenta, water, and about three cups of chard greens from the garden. Near the end I made divots and added in eggs to bake in place, and I finished it with various green herbs and a little grated parmesan. ...

An excellent and relatively easy dinner. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Salt trout, let it rest 15 minutes, drizzle good olive oil over it, and wrap it tightly in fig leaves (it took about eight big leaves from the tree in our yard, overlapped, to fully enclose two packets without holes). Bake it for about 20 minutes until flaky and done. The fig leaves gave off an pleasant, fruity aroma as they roasted and when we tore them open, and the trout itself was moist, soft, and delicious (with almost a hint of coconut flavor from the leaves? is that crazy?) ...

I’ve made these Vietnamese-inspired meatballs three times, and they’ve been satisfying in a lettuce wrap with piles of fresh herbs, on a bowl of brown rice with a spicy cucumber salad and steamed vegetables, or simmered in poultry stock from the freezer (a good way to use leftover cooked meatballs the next day…): I was inspired by this NYTimes Cooking recipe but have tweaked it each time I make them, my current version is: ...

Another quick pasta meal incorporating some vegetables from the garden (roughly a pasta alla norma): Fry small eggplants in a little olive oil for 10-15 minutes until soft (should have peeled them first), season and set aside. Saute some onions and garlic and chili flake– then add diced tomatoes and cook down (maybe 15 minutes). Add the eggplant back in, combine with pasta, pistachios, grated parmesan, and lots of chopped fresh basil… ...

This summer I grew a small plot of fava beans– not enough for a main dish, but I improvised a sauce for pasta combining fresh favas, green garlic, a few anchovy filets, pecorino, parsley, and mint (plus more cheese at the end):

Earlier this fall I made some delicious tandoori-style chicken for an Indian-themed dinner party. This may be the best-tasting chicken I’ve cooked in a long time. I figured, I have a kamado-style ceramic-walled charcoal grill / smoker that can easily get up to 700 degrees F (which I’ve used to make pizza in the past)– there must be some way to use this as an approximation of a tandoor. I did some reading, and as often seems to be the case, there was an article by Kenji on Serious Eats on this very idea. ...

For an Indian-themed dinner party that included tandoori chicken cooked in the charcoal grill / smoker, I also wanted to make fresh naan. As usual, there’s a Serious Eats article about it. I made a few test batches the previous weekend with both white and whole wheat flour, cooked under either the broiler or in a cast iron skillet: While I liked the taste of a 50% white-whole-wheat-flour naan and it cooked fairly well, white bread flour combined with a preheated oven + pizza steel + broiler on during cooking led to a really fluffy, puffy naan, which I used for a larger dinner party. If I tried it again, I’d use whole wheat flour but add some vital wheat gluten powder as I’ve done with bagel-making. ...

I’ve made pakora-inspired fried vegetable fritters a number of times in different contexts. After some experimentation, here’s the approach I like best: Coarsely shred a range of root vegetables, alliums, and brassicas. My favorite mix: carrots, onions, broccoli, cauliflower An alternate winter mix: Brussels sprouts, onions, carrots, cabbage For a large batch of pakoras as appetizers for a 12-person dinner party, I combined: 6 cups coarsely shredded vegetables (squeeze in a colander to get as much liquid out of them as possible) 6 small green chiles, chopped 1 tsp crushed garlic (or more) 1 tsp grated ginger (or more) 1 T garam masala I let them sit for another 30 minutes in the colander to drain, then squeezed the liquid out of them one more time. Then added: ...