Truffle Mutt

Weekend Dinner II

Mmm...  French onion soup.

And look at how prefect it looks in my brand new (flea market) soup bowls.  I love how pretty they are and I got six for 10 bucks - what a steal.  It's possible they even made the soup taste better.  Yeah, that part was probably in my head.  But whatever.

I combined a few different recipes, but slipped up and added a bit too much champagne vinegar.  Oops.  Sometimes my aversion to measuring devices (aka laziness) bites me in the butt.  I was able to revive it though by adding more stock.

I caramelized 4 large sliced onions, 3 shallots and 3 cloves of garlic.   Then de-glazed the pan with a generous splash or two of white wine, a 1/4 cup of sherry and then added 3 cups of light veal stock, 2 bay leaves and thyme.  I also added 1 tbsp of sun-dried tomato paste and should have added a tsp or two of champagne vinegar and not the 5 or 6 I did.  So, then I added another cup of stock.  I'd suggest the use of measuring spoons instead and leave out the last two steps.  Then I topped it off with white cheddar and Asiago cheese.  Mozza, Swiss and Gruyere would have been better, but how can you go wrong with cheese?  That's right you can't.         

Musseling Up

Lately, when I log on to my blog the first thing I notice is how long it's been since I last posted.  It never seems like that long - but the dates confirm it!  Time flies - fun or not.

My lack of posts isn't reflective of my time in the kitchen however, I've been cooking a lot since Christmas.  No pictures though, so that makes posting difficult (I'm all about the pictures).  And why are there no pictures, because unlike all you other brave bloggers out there, I haven't come out about my blogging yet.  Most people don't know that I blog and bringing out my camera at the table might tip them off (or cause some interesting rumors).  So why the secrecy?  I'm not sure - I guess I like the anonymity.  I can't well blog about Jade stealing a filet mignon off the counter (which I then served) if our dinner guests can read about it here!  Talk about dumb...

There's no dirt on the story of these mussels though.  Just garlic, garlic and more garlic.  I adapted the recipe from this one at epicurious and the sauce was a winner, so much so that I let Jason eat most of the muscles and I sopped up the sauce.  I used 9 cloves of garlic, left the olives and pasta out all together, added a leek and switched the red wine to white.  My only suggestion - make sure you have lots of bread on hand.

Gnocchi (really nyoki)

So, did anyone else out there foolishly pronounce this word as 'gu-naw-chee' before finding out the correct pronunciation?  Well, neither did I.  Especially not to an Italian while we were on safari in Africa - because whoa it would have been embarrassing if I'd done that. 

Alright, I admit it.  It was me.  But come on, could someone not have corrected me before it got to that!?   What are friends supposed to be for?  And who spelled gnocchi in the first place?  How are kids supposed to sound THAT out? 

Lucky for me though, making gnocchi was a much less humiliating experience.  I used the gnocchi recipe posted on Hungry in Hogtown and made the sauce from the bron marshall blog.  I loved the sauce but the gnocchi was so fluffy that it was almost mushy in texture.  Next time I'll try a recipe that calls for boiling the potatoes to see if the end result has more substance.   

These little dumplings are fun to make.  Just remember to make lots, because once you start you're overcome by the need to prefect the fork roll and that takes a lot of practice and hundreds of tries.

Veggie Stock Finale

Oh my!  I almost forgot to post about using the last of my veggie stock!  Now I have to try and remember what happened. 

I remember it tasted great.  I took all the leftovers to work for lunches.  I also remember that choosing the second dish for my stock wasn't too difficult.  I had a wee bit of stock left and as I flipped through recipes not many doors were opening for me.  But, I love coconut milk and cashews, especially together, so this was my choice.

If I make it again though I'll add a few chili peppers, heat would be better.

Home Alone

A few weekends ago I was home alone and the freedom was exhilarating.   

I spent my Saturday morning battling the crowds at the Calgary Farmers' Market and Planet Organic gathering my bounty.  I bought eggplants, tomatoes, summer squash, baby zucchini and cucumbers along with many other forms of organic matter that Jason would never eat, in preparation for my vegetable voyage. 

My plans for the weekend revolved around making stock, which I have been meaning to make for ages and ages.  I made two batches of veal stock and one batch of veggie stock.  And after spilling precious stock on my foot, the floor and the counter, I know that I will not attempt making stock again without a vastly larger stock pot and sieve.  In addition, if you're going to go through the time and effort to make stock you really should end up with more than 4 cups.  Come on!  4 cups.  I see a HUGE pot in my future.  Call me psychic.

After careful stock rationing, I decided to use the vegetable stock to make this white bean soup from my copy of 30 Minute Vegetarian.  I made a few changes to the soup and it turned out to be quite good.  Next time I may try dried beans instead of canned, because the canned ones are a little too mushy. 

A Big Pot of Jambalaya

I don't have a lot to say about Jambalaya.  I don't like making, smelling or eating it.  Are you wondering why I make it?  If you must know, I make it to be a good wife.  I cook dinner straight after tidying up and then I rush to refresh myself.  Ha-ha!  Apparently the cleaning up part will even lift my spirits!  Perfect.  :)  I can't tell you the last time dusting or vacuuming has lifted my spirits - maybe I'm not doing it right.   

I actually do make jambalaya because Jason likes it and because it's one of the few ways he eats his veggies.  So while it's not on my list of favorites, I soldier on.  I make it sound bad, but I'd have to score it an 8 or 9 in comparison to others I've tried.  Deconstructed it doesn't seem bad at all - peppers, tomatoes, shrimp, sausage and chicken.  What's not to like?  Maybe I just can't hack so many protein sources in one dish.  Like shrimp on pepperoni pizza - gross.

Greek Chicken

My favorite Greek restaurant in Calgary is Spiro's on 17th and it's right down the street from our new house.  Woohoo!  When I first realized that I would be so close I was bouncing with excitement.  And now after 592 visits and more tension on my zipper than the Golden Gate Bridge, ask me how I feel about it.  Still, they do serve the best lamb kleftiko, ever.  And the best melitzanosalata, taramosalata, tyrokafteri, moussaka - oh my goodness - I almost left out the lemon potatoes.  Now you understand the problem.

The picture above is my attempt to make lamb kleftiko, except with chicken.  It wasn't quite the same, possibly because I used chicken (?).  Regardless of that it was pretty yummy. 

The sauce at Spiro's is thicker and has a more intense tomato flavor to it, but I think if you braised the dish for a longer time to reduce the sauce and intensify the flavors that the result would be closer. Additionally, next time I might try using lamb to get a closer approximation of lamb kleftiko.  There's a thought.

Lemon Grass Thai Pesto

Lemon grass, ginger, shallots, basil, olive oil, cheese, nuts and garlic = a fantastic and seriously original pesto.  Although I spot something red in there - my bet's on chilies.

I don't have a lot of experience cooking with lemon grass, but I'm in love with the taste of it.  Now thinking back, I can only remember cooking with it once and the memory is a painful one.  The flavor of the dish was alright, it was the fibrous, jaw strengthening texture that remains burned into my mind.  Needless to say it ended up clogging the garburator after just a few bites.  This pesto from the Stock and Sauce Co. was a far superior gastronomic experience.

When I bought this at the market I was looking to buy a sweet basil pesto for my brother and his girlfriend for a dinner party they were having.  I was not (supposed to be) shopping for myself.  That was until the guy working the booth saw the HUGE "Sucker for Food" sign around my neck and offered me a tester. You guessed it - sold.  Now all I had to do is buy a dinner to go with it!

After a few more stops at the market, this was the menu.  Pan fried halibut, seasoned with salt and pepper, topped with lemon grass pesto, served with yellow tomato and cheddar salad drizzled with olive oil salt and pepper and sauteed asparagus.

Supposed to be Cannelloni Manicotti

I can't find my pasta maker!  I packed it a few months before we moved out of the condo, but now that we've unpacked in the new place I can't seem to locate it.  Of course if Jason was the one to unpack it - it could be anywhere.  I have asked him if he remembers seeing it during his unpacking, but honestly he wouldn't know pasta maker if it came up and introduced itself.  R.I.P. little pasta maker, wherever you are.

I set out at first to make cannelloni from The Food of Italy Cookbook, but having neither my pasta maker, or flat lasagna noodles on hand, I had to go ahead with what I did have - Manicotti.  This came with the serious side effect of not being able to roll the filling with the cheese or prosciutto, not good.   

Calgary Cheesesteaks

I've never been to Philadelphia and I've never had a real Philly cheesesteak sandwich, so I had some research to do before making this attempt.  I surfed around the net to get some ideas, but wasn't keen on any one recipe.  For starters I knew my cheesesteaks were going to be born from a leftover bison chuck roast, not very Philly cheesesteak like, so I named them Calgary cheesesteaks instead.   

I thinly sliced the roast and then made an au jus for the meat.  I know the au jus is also very unauthentic, but I changed the name, so that should be acceptable enough.  To a large saute pan I added 2 tbsp of olive olive oil, 1/2 a medium chopped onion and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. When the onion was lightly browned I deglazed the pan with a splash of red wine and then added 1/2 a cup of beef stock, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp tomato paste and 1 tsp brown sugar.  After a few tastes I seasoned the sauce with salt and pepper and added the sliced meat and one sliced portabello mushroom.  I let the meat simmer for about 1 hour - only because my dinner date was late - and then made a batch of sauteed sliced onion and green pepper.

Then after a few more additions of stock to keep the meat from drying out, Jason finally arrived!  I served the bison piled high on a toasted slice of sourdough, added a big scoop of sauteed onion and green pepper and then layered the sandwich with mozzarella and a gruesome smothering of melted cheese whiz.  Philly-shmilly...