Pine Nut Caution

The risotto from a few days ago seems to have given me a mild case of Pine Mouth, where everything I eat has a slightly bitter aftertaste. Looking around at some blog comments, it seems like there's been a spate of complaints recently about the pine nuts from Trader Joe's, which is where I bought mine.

The cause hasn't been determined yet, but it doesn't appear to be related to pesticides or contaminants, and the effect seems to disappear after a few days. Not everyone is affected, either -- my wife ate the risotto and is doing fine. It seems to stem from certain strains of nuts that come from China or Korea, so I'm definitely sticking with nuts with European origins in the future.

Ancho chili and Fennel

So this post might seem lame because I'm not going to really say anything new. But last night I had the same "drunken french-lentil soup" as mentioned previously. It was so hearty, rich and delicious that I would probably now label it as my favorite soup of all time. I think the ancho chili powder and the sauteed fennel and carrot are really what make the flavor so complex and satisfying. They now sell ancho pepper in most supermarkets, you should go out and buy some, it will make everything you make taste better. Its not very hot at all, rather, it has a rich, deep sweet, slightly smokey flavor. You can use it anywhere you would you use paprika or chili-powder.

So this time I added garlic and 1/4 teaspoon whole fennel seeds to the sautéing process, and added 2 diced potatoes with the lentils. All very good additions, the potato was good with the lentils. We had fresh Ciabatta and good olive oil and pepper with the soup. It may seem strange to say this about soup, but it was one of the best meals I've had this year.

Two Posts in a Day!?

That's like... totally tubular, man!

Anyway, risotto. I had made a simplified version of it once before, but Andrew's post certainly piqued my interest in giving it another try. I enjoy very much savory grain-based dishes, particularly when they include some form of fat: macaroni and cheese, fried rice, pad thai, couscous, etc. Risotto seemed a logical choice.

Andrew covered the preparation pretty well, so I won't go into that too much. For the stock I used 1 can of chicken broth combined with a prepared cube of vegetable bullion. I also added a couple tablespoons of mirin -- sweetened Japanese cooking sake to give it a bit of a sweet flavor. After sauteing the onions for a couple of minutes, I added chopped portobello mushrooms as the main veggie, plus some julienned carrots (OK, baby carrots) to add a little color, some raw pine nuts, and a clove of minced garlic. Then, in turn, the risotto, the white wine, and finally some dried dill and savory. The final ingredient before adding the stock was to throw a few chopped scallions in there -- again, mainly for color as the flavor had cooked out of them by the time it was finished.

Andrew didn't specify which part of the lemon should be used, so I added the juice and zest of about 1/4 of one, as well as some fresh ground lemon-pepper (available at Trader Joe's for $2!). I admit I was a bit skeptical as to how the lemon flavor would fit in with the rest of the dish, but it was actually quite good! I shall never doubt you again, Andrew! For the dairy, I split the difference between the cheese and cream by adding about 1/2 cup each of parmesan and cream cheese, with a little milk to loosen the consistency up a bit.

Overall, I'd deem it a success! While chowing down, it struck me that some water chestnuts would have fit in quite well with their crispiness, so perhaps I will try that next time, see how it goes.

Simplicity In Eating, or What to do with Smoked Salmon When You Were Raised 2000 Miles From The Ocean

In retrospect, maybe it wasn't the best idea to start blogging a couple of weeks before a conference. Not only was I away in Oregon for a week, I spent the week or two prior to the conference trying to run those last experiments and prepare my presentation, so I didn't have time to cook anything that required more than a milligram of thought.

I always try to bring my wife something unique from the place I go when I have to travel without her, which usually ends up being food. Among the items brought back from Oregon was a package of smoked Pacific salmon -- something I haven't had the opportunity to really try before, at least as far as I can recall. I was a bit unsure what to do with it, and although I have a little bit of experience cooking with fish, I'm still not as adventurous with them as I am with most things, since the flavor is more likely to clash with anything I might try to concoct than say, beef or chicken.

So I decided to keep things simple. The salmon was pulled into little bits with a fork and sprinkled onto a toasted sesame bagel with a layer of cream cheese, along with some chopped scallions and some freshly-ground black pepper.

Man, was that a good idea!

The salmon had a strong but rich smoky-fishy flavor that was perfectly underlaid by the smoothness of the cream cheese, with the scallions offering *just* enough contrast with their clean, sharp taste.

There are times when I love to just throw all sorts of flavors together and see what comes out, but it's easy to forget that most foods have a whole assortment of flavors just on their own, like the salmon in this case. Sometimes it's great to go the route of simplicity, pairing the ingredient with a couple of complementary flavors or textures, but letting the complexity of the food do the flavoring for you. I expect to be doing more simple eating as we move into summer with its abundance of fresh, seasonal fruits and veggies.

2 More Tasty Dinners

Hey all,
Here's a couple more tasty recipes that I've come up with in the past few days. The first comes with rave reviews from my girlfriend. It's a bit similar to the first recipe I posted, but it tasted quite a bit different. Well, without any further ado, lets get started:

Pasta in a Fire roasted tomato, red wine sauce

• 1 large can of diced tomatoes
• 1 small can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
• Olive oil
  
• 2 cups red wine
• 1 medium onion
  
• 2 Tablespoons minced garlic (~6-7 cloves)
  
• 2 small hot peppers (1 jalapeno and 1 red fresno)
  
• Several Handfuls frozen green beans
• Several Handfuls frozen peas
• a Handful of frozen chopped peppers
  
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  
• 3-4 Tablespoons Oregano
• 3-4 Tablespoons Basil
• 1-2 Tablespoons Fennel
  
• 1-2 Tablespoons Rosemary
• 3 frozen breaded eggplant cutlets
  
• 1 Splash liquid smoke
  
• Salt and pepper
• Parmesan cheese
• Mozzarella cheese
  
• Pasta

Sauce
1) In a large pot, brown the garlic (save a little for the eggplant), onions, hot peppers, and spices.
2) Once browned add in the frozen veggies, and let cook several minutes.
3) Add in the tomatoes, wine and vinegar, and liquid smoke. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4) Let simmer on low heat while the eggplant and pasta cook.

Eggplant
1) In a frying pan, brown some garlic and the eggplant cutlets.
2) Once browned, spoon some of the sauce into the pan, and let simmer for several minutes until the eggplant is done (We like eggplant nice and soft, so if you like it firm, let simmer for a shorter amount of time.

Serving
Stir some of the sauce into the pasta to prevent it from sticking.
Layer the eggplant over the pasta and cover with the sauce.
Sprinkle mozzarella and Parmesan cheese over the top and Enjoy!

Note: The sauce came out really spicy, so be warned! If you don't want spice, you can cut down on the hot peppers.


Tuna in a Lemon White Wine Sauce

• Olive oil
• 1/2 Large garlic clove minced
• 2 Tbs. Basil
• 2 Tbs. Oregano
• 2 Tbs. Onion Powder
• 1 Tbs. Hot pepper flakes
  
• 2 cans Tuna in water
• 1 1/2 cup white wine
• 3 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 Tbs. white wine vinegar
• 1 Handful frozen chopped peppers
• 1 Handful frozen broccoli
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• 3-4 Tbs. toasted pine nuts
  

1) In a medium frying pan, brown the garlic, hot pepper, and spices.
2) Add the white wine, lemon juice, vinegar, frozen veggies, and tuna and simmer for several minutes.
3) As the mixture is simmering, add in the pine nuts, Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste.
4) Serve over pasta and enjoy.

The pine nuts could be omitted, as the sauce turned out very flavorful, slightly overwhelming the pine nuts' flavor.

That's all for now folks! See you next time.
-Chris

Alchemy and Spices

Some parts of cooking are largely chemistry: baking for instance, is helped by quite precise quantities of ingredients which cause vital reactions to occur: browning/caremelization, rising, are all wonderful pieces of precise microbiology.

Spices... are not really like that at all. Their character varies wildly based on how they grown, what variety they are, how finely they are ground, how fresh they are, not to mention what they are mixed with! Brown mustard seeds, toasted whole, are pleasantly nutty and mild and are often used in curries. Lightly crushed they impart a similar but more robust flavor to whole grain mustard, perfect for vinaigrettes. Finely grind those suckers, and add just the smallest bit of water to make a paste, and you've got seriously delicious fire at your fingertips!

For this reason, you should only ever take the spices given in recipes as a rough guide. Instead, smell your spices and know their flavor, taste them, and taste your dishes. This is not just chemistry, this is art. I divide spices (and herbs) roughly into two categories: those that easily blend with other flavors, and the misfits, that are delicious, but can fight for dominance with some other flavors, and must be used more carefully. Here are a few of my favorites (a limited list for now).

Friendly spices

• Coriander: My absolute favorite, this has a delicate, lemony floral aroma, a bit of nuttiness but none of the bitterness of its frequent partner in crime: cumin. It is delicious in EVERYTHING. I'm serious. A bit of oregano, coriander and chili pepper, are great for a tomato sauce. Creamed soups: coriander. Savory baked goods? Coriander. Really. Everything.
• Black Pepper: Fresh ground pepper has a lovely flavor of pine and earth (grind some into olive oil to taste its flavor at its most vivid).
• Sweet Pepprika: Doesn't go in everything, but has a nice sweetness that goes with tomato sauces well.
• Chili Peppers: Not true for all chilis (particularly not smoked ones), but used with a light touch, a bit of spice can lift a dish without being obtrusive to the other flavors.
• Others: parsley, dill, celery seed

Assertive Spices

• Cumin: With peppers or onions, this gives a rich bitter sweet flavor that is one of my favorates, but is not subtile.
• Sage: Delicious and dangerous, very good with winter squash, but too much can easily ruin a dish, and it clashes with other strong flavors (like cumin or chipotle, for example)
• Others: Cardomom, mint, actually most spices are in this category. I'd recommend focusing on one at a time when playing around.

Middling: Mustard, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme. These spices have a lot of friends that they work well with, but fight with some others.

By the way, I have been cooking, but I thought it would be more fun to just think about spices tonight. So I indulged myself. I had fun, I hope you did too. Let me know if you liked it, and how you think about food! Goodnight.

Sorry for the delay!

Hey all,
Rest assured I haven't forgotten you. Sorry for the delay in posting new stuff. Life has been crazy the last few weeks, as I'm getting ready for a research conference, and I haven't really been cooking much. Things should improve in two weeks and I'll be back to tastiness! I may be able to share a couple of things before then.
Until then, the ideas are percolating!
-Chris