Truffle Mutt

More Suprises

Ooh Look!  I found another homeless picture on my computer. 

This was an attempt at a tomato salad recipe on Epicurious.  That's all I've got for you though, I really don't remember which recipe it was.  I'm pretty sure that it had sherry wine vinegar in it - I still have that in the pantry! 

The salad was a combo of chopped tomato, cucumber and egg white on a not-so-good-no-really-quite-gross dressing with bread crumbs and the egg yolks.  But, it's kinds cute so it's worth mention. 

Hmm...  What other photo treasures are hidden on here?

Raspberry & Cookie Crumble

Ah look!  More archived and forgotten pictures.  I was doing some winter cleaning on my computer just the other day, you know, sorting through old pictures, getting rid stuff I no longer need (at least I hope) and I found this gem.  Raspberry crumble, without the crumble.  I used a sugar cookie recipe for the topping instead, which I'm sure has a more official name like cobbler, or buckle, or something, but I'm going with Raspberry Uncrumble.  

Raspberries are for sure my favorite fruit, and on a then a recent trip to Banff we'd eaten the best hot and buttery raspberry crumble that I couldn't resist a recreation.  I don't however, like to add a lot of sugar to raspberries, so with this I could leave the filling on the tart side and add extra sweetness with the cookie. 

What do I remember?  Well, it was yummy.  Oh yeah!  AND my Aunt finished the last spoonful (she was the guest after all) and there were no seconds for me.  What fond memories.  :)

My suggestion would be to either a) make it for yourself, or b) make 2, so that after the guests leave you have a back up and no one has to know.  For me, well I'm home alone this week, so I might just be trying out option a).

Blue Cheese Please

I love food.  I think about it, read about it, blog about and of course I need to eat it now and again.  Unfortunately, that doesn't always translate into waves of excitement when I'm faced with making dinner after work.  On occasion I may give into laziness and let Jason cook, which directly translates into either Amy's Tomato soup or ham and fresh tomato pizza.  Other times, you may find me standing in front of the open fridge waiting for inspiration to strike and some nights that can be a long wait. 

I was having just such a ho-hum feeling about dinner the other night when thoughts of pizza (again) propelled me to the fridge.  My initial foray revealed beef tenderloin and a smidgen of blue cheese, no problems there.  However, the contents of my veg drawer revealed less promising selections - carrots - nope, apples - I don't think so, brussel sprouts - pass, collard greens...  Hmm.  Maybe.  And then, I felt it, the last wisp of cold air escaping from the fridge and dusting across my feet.  Okay, times up - collard greens it is.

And after the final round it was Pizza - 0 -  Beef tenderloin with shallot, blue cheese and sherry sauce and sauteed collards with black eyed peas - 1. 

Starting with Dessert

I'm going to do it.  I'm going to start with dessert.  I'm not going to tell you about my latest version of lack luster minestrone soup (sorry Vlad - I'll post more on that later), or the beef tenderloin with blue cheese and shallot, nope, it's a do-not-pass-go-and-proceed-directly-to-dessert kind of day.  So there.

At the market last weekend I came across the cutest baby gala apples.  And what good timing, since I'd recently been inspired by Laura Caulder on French Food at Home and wanted to try my hand at this tarte tatin.  On tv it looked so delicious it was impossible not to drool.  The apples were bathed in a pan of dark bubbly caramel and then covered in a blanket of pastry.  Rich, silky perfection and it was promptly added to the top spot on my to-make list. 

So what were my thoughts?  First off, don't start making the tart before you check to see if you have pastry in the freezer, or you may end up having to use a broken store bought version yielding a less than perfect result.  Second, do not let the show fool you - it has been edited.  Specifically, the part where the said tart is inverted onto the serving platter and molten caramel, liquefied by copious volumes of apple juice erupts EVERYWHERE.  Good thing I decided to let it cool.   The end result though was worth the permanent scaring to my lower left arm.

Fall Food

 Up until today it was easy to fool myself into believing it was still summer.  Then after today's brief but furious snow and icy wind storm the reality of fall set in.  So, I reluctantly turned on the furnace and brought out my dutch oven for Beef Bourguignon with roasted fingerling potatoes. 

I haven't made this dish before so I used a recipe of Laura Caulder's from French Food at Home.  I didn't strain the sauce as she suggests and I just added the garnish, other than that I followed her recipe exactly.  Ladled over crispy golden potatoes it was a welcome introduction to fall, much more so than snow.   

Minestrone Help

I'm in search of the perfect Minestrone recipe.  One loaded with tender chunky veggies swimming in luxurious tomato broth and a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.  Sigh...  Does anyone have any tips or secrets that they'd like to pass on? 

When I'm craving just such a minestrone I head over to either Sazio or Don Quijote.  Both places serve soups that rate a strong 8 or 9 out of 10.  But, I've yet to be able to achieve these results at home, which is a serious bummer.  At least for me.  

As usual I my recipe search began at epicurious.  I love being able to read through the reviews and suggestions, but the pages of positive reviews on this recipe didn't sell me on the ingredient list.  How can you have an Italian soup with no herbs?  So, I kept up the search and ended up using a combination of epicurious and this one from Tyler Florence.  I used potatoes, basil, thyme, bay leaf, sage and swiss chard.  I left out the parsnips and used black-eyed peas as my bean.  Overall it turned out to be a great soup, but it's still not exactly the one I am looking for.

Dill-icious

I've got a nasty cold that has me confined to the couch (yuck) and exposed to endless hours of Food TV (yeah).  Oh look!  Chef Michael Smith making smoked salmon bagel sandwiches.

What a good idea.  That is once I slip out of the cold med haze and walk to the kitchen.  Now into the mini food chopper, goes one big dollop of creme fraiche, a tbsp or so of capers, zest of 1/2 a lemon, a pinch of smoked sea salt, 1/2 a chopped shallot and 5 or so small sprigs of dill.  Buzz away until everything is nicely blended.  Taste.  And?  Nope, it needs a bit more dill and a pinch of sugar to round it out.  Perfect.  Now for one can of salmon, a piece of toast and extra capers.

Now, back to the couch...

Couscous Salad

This salad was actually a side to a citrus marinated pork tenderloin with salsa and spicy sauteed kale.  And yes, I wasn't kidding when I said addicted -we've been grazing on a lot of foliage lately.

So when it came to salad I had to pick something un-green for the position - enter couscous.  I've made variations of this salad a number of times.  It's easy to put together with a light dressing and any number of ingredients.  Tomatoes and basil, or roasted peppers and parsley tossed with olive oil and lemon dressing.  And you can make it to go with almost anything.

I put a Mexican twist on this one to go with the salsa and cumin spiced pork.  And doesn't it look great in the blue bowl I just painted at ceramics!?  Yes it does, if I do says so myself.

Couscous Salad:
2 cups cooked couscous, drained and cooled
6 green onions chopped
1 chopped avacodo
2 tbsp chopped parsley
6-10 chopped Peppadew peppers, or other sweet marinated peppers
Add the following to taste
salt
olive oil
lemon juice

Got Goat Cheese?

I was cleaning out my fridge a couple of weekends ago and as I plunged my hand into a slimy mass of over aged cucumbers I made a decision.  I need to menu plan!  I can no longer head to the market and buy whatever produce catches my eye.  It's going to be shopping boot camp from now on, focus, focus, focus.  My spontaneous shopping days are over and with some will power hopefully so are my refrigerator composting experiments. 

And I'm happy to report that although this recipe was not on the PLAN, it did use up ingredients in the fridge.  But of course, I didn't have the orzo, there was no goat cheese hanging around, cream was a scarce commodity and there were no Shitakes anywhere either!  In any case this dinner was welcome at my table even with all the switcher-oos.  

Boil a generous portion of Anchellini pasta to not-quite-limpness, otherwise known as al-dente and reserve a small portion (1/4 cup) of the cooking water.

Take 1 chicken breast - flatten it like a pancake with a rubber mallet from Home Depot, or Rona if you'd prefer.  Remember to cover the chicken between sheets of wax paper - or you'll be scrapping chicken flesh off of - well pretty much everything.  Season the chicken with salt, pepper and thyme and then dust with flour and fry in a sizzling hot pan with olive oil.  When the chicken is done put it on a plate, add another splash of olive oil to the pan and in goes 1 chopped red pepper and a heaping cup of sliced button mushrooms.  Saute until lightly browned and then add 2 cloves of chopped garlic. 

Add a splash of chicken stock and then turn the heat to low.  Mix in 1/4 cup of creme fraiche and a 1/4 cup of grated sharp cheese.  Season with salt and pepper, a sprinkle of thyme and fresh chopped parsley.  Add the pasta, chopped chicken and reserved cooking water to the mix and stir until mixed and heated through.

And there you have it.  One red pepper and a bag of mushrooms on the road to greatness and not sliminess.  Liz 1 - Fridge 0.

Chicken + Almonds + Garlic

= YUCK!

It's apparently a Spanish dish, but I just couldn't do it!  I'll spare you the recipe and leave you with a waning instead -  if you see something masquerading as a recipe and it calls for garlic, almonds, parsley, chicken and a few other things pass on in it and save your almonds for granola, chicken for grilling and garlic & parsley for bread. 

The Edamame thankfully were an A+.