Cooking Debauchery

Calzone Chameleon

I knew the dough was gonna be trouble from the moment I read the recipe.  I had trepidations when I read that the dough was to be sticky and the ratio of ingredients.  But I made the dough for the latest DB challenge anyway.

As promised, it stuck to my hands, to the sides of the mixing bowl, to the dough hook, and clung with great fervor to the scale when I tried to weight it.  It clung to the point where even though I had dusted every available surface that the dough could have touched with flour I was still finding bits of it a week later.

Having wrangled it into the fridge, I thought it would get easier.

BBQ Shrimp

It is far different animal to feed eight people instead of our usual three or four.  While I can normally manage just fine to both cook dinner and take pictures… this is assuming of course I have all my little ducks in a row… with eight people baying for food this becomes nearly impossible. 

So while the last six weeks have been a revolving door of culinary bliss, photos never quite seemed to make the list of to-dos. 

The reason for all this activity of course, was a descent but still not long enough visit from my family from the Ukraine.  The same family which I visited last August.  For a whole six weeks, my kitchen was much like I remember it as a child.  Filled with happy people making incredible food.

It was also a fairly interesting cultural exchange.

Garlic Roasted Herbed Lamb

A note:  First of all I would like to offer a heartfelt thank you to all of those who kept coming back while this blog sat idle.  I am sorry that I have been away for so long, work has unfortunately kept me from cooking much and I didn't have enough of a backlog of recipes to keep up regular posting.

While I use my BBQ a great deal, so much so that I was going through a grill every couple of years before I got my Weber, I don’t often use it for BBQing.  I use it for grilling.  I have gotten quite good at grilling nearly everything.

Even during winter, or what passes for winter in Southern California, I am out there at least a couple of times a week.  This gets a tad silly when its pitch black outside and I am out there waving frantically at the automatic light.  In summer however, I grill nearly every other day if not every day.  It’s an easy way to get dinner on the table.

Mostly what I grill are individual cuts of meat.  Steaks, chicken, and seafood cut to individual portions.  They all cook rather quickly; add a few vegetables and dinner is usually on the table pretty quickly.  Quickly enough to be able to enjoy the last fading rays of the sun while dining el fresco. 

I will be honest that larger cuts on meat in general intimidate me, even more so on the grill where it is new territory.  But as I had all weekend to plan and a lovely, idly sunny day in which to tinker, I decided to tackle one of my biggest food hurdles.

Souprovisation

Quick Cooking Part Two

When you come home at the end of the day it is easy to take one look at your kitchen and waves the white flag of surrender and pick up the phone to get take out.

But that need not be the case.

With a few pantry staples it is easy to make a completely satisfying meal in a matter of minutes.

Soup is a quick cooking life saver.

Beef with Cumin

There are some things you never expect to go together; a good balsamic vinegar and cheesecake, grape jelly and meatballs.  They somehow seem wrong or don’t fit.

I suppose it is because our mind gets use to the idea of pairings and comfortably places things in their little cubby holes.  That is where they belong, that is their niche.  Our minds automatically shy away from putting what is comfortable and familiar in the “wrong” niche.

But these are missed opportunities.  Especially in cooking.  It is precisely in these slightly uncomfortable areas where the bold, fearless chefs dwell blazing the trail for the rest of us.

But you need not be a trailblazer to play with these boundaries.

Even with what is common in the pantry you can stretch your culinary prowess and unearth a treasure.

Lamb & Barley Stew

Created for the “Hey waiter there’s a something in my… stew!” event hosted at Spittoon Extra.

Except for certain holiday, lamb seems to be the ugly step child of America’s diets.

And even when it is eaten a vast majority of recipes seem to want to cover up the natural flavor.  Helpful recipe writers tell us that if you do X it will reduce lamb’s innate gaminess and makes it milder in flavor.

These people are trying to make lamb taste like beef.  And if that is what you want, then why not eat beef in the first place?

Lamb’s unique flavor should be enjoyed for itself; eaten in foods that highlight its slight gaminess.

Exactly like AB’s lamb and barley stew.

Lemon Scented, Herb Roasted Chicken

There comes a time in every girl’s life when she has to stick her hand up a dead bird.

Well at least if that girl wishes to have roast chicken.

I shan’t deny that I am thoroughly squicked by touching raw meat.  I know that it is a funny confession for a self admitted foodie to make, but it’s true. 

When it comes to touching raw meat I am a tongs kinda girl.  And if it touches my hand by accident, I am a hand washing kinda gal.  I dislike the way that raw meat feels and the way it makes my hands smell.

Still, there is virtually no better method to impart flavor to whole chicken than to rub that baby down between the skin and the meat with some kind of tasty mixture.

This is why God invented gloves.

OMG Garlic! Shrimp & Parsnip Puree

OH MY GOD!  Garlic!

That was the first though that raced into my head as I popped little pink curl into my mouth.

It is hard to imagine so much flavor from something that amounts to little more than a mouthful.

Salty, tangy, sweet and oh so garlicky.  The shrimp were an explosion of garlic flavor.

Garlic was the first flavor that hit and the flavor that lingered.

It was then that I realized, what I had invented was in fact; a garlic orgasm.

It did not start out that way.  It was not my intention!

But when it comes to garlic I have no self control.

Butternut & Apple Risotto

Submitted for Sweetnick's ARF/5-A-Day tuesday event

Risotto!

I will say it again.  Risotto!

It is a word that strikes a note of both fear and longing in the home cook!

It looks so tempting there on the restaurant menu.  Creamy and flavorful, it is the kind of food that most people reserve for going out.  It feels decadent with its silky texture and extraordinary flavor.  The kind that whispers of a long slow cooking process.

It is a celebration food.  It feels special because it feels like it requires significant culinary prowess to master – or in the very least a diploma from a culinary school.

But that is not how it started.  Risotto is peasant food.  And it is no harder to make than any other stew.  Just requires a touch more effort.

But just a touch!

Autumn Harvest Rice

In recent years I have tried very hard to expand not only my own eating horizons but those of my family.

Slowly, with much patience I have been introducing world cuisine into our lives.  Be it in the form of spices, meats, or veggies, I am working things in when I can.  I am proud of the progress I have made.  Going from meat, potatoes, cucumbers and tomatoes to a veritable cornucopia of possibilities is not easy.

I persistently push the food envelope.  And yet, I seem to have missed a treat right under my very nose.  Something so familiar and so banal – or so I thought – that it missed my culinary curiosity entirely!

Chestnuts!