laura k – Page 21 – The Kitchen Illiterate

The Most Ultimate of Awesome Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

The Ultimate Grilled Cheese Sandwich

In honor of National Grilled Cheese Month, we decided we had to concoct the very best, most ultimate grilled cheese sandwich of all time. And we would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that pesky cast iron skillet! Actually, they were pretty awesome, despite sticking in the worst way to the pan, thus diminishing their prettiness for the camera. And while it might be possible for someone to create a more ultimate grilled cheese sandwich, I think it would be very difficult.

How does one grilled cheese sandwich end up more ultimate than another? We took our cue from a local Boston restaurant, Picco, which, instead of coating the bread with butter before grilling, coats each slice with a healthy dose of Mornay sauce. I have not actually had this famous grilled cheese, only read about it Boston Magazine’s January 2006 food issue, but as soon as I read it, I knew I’d have to try it. But that innovation was not enough. This sandwich would need something else to become ultimate, and that something else was…bacon!

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Radicchio and Prosciutto Risotto

Radicchio and Proscuitto Risotto

More risotto experimentation, and this one was a winner. The bitterness of the radicchio and the saltiness of the prosciutto are a perfect complement. I also learned another important piece of the risotto puzzle: Using a too-large skillet causes the stock to evaporate too quickly, thereby not cooking the rice exactly to its peak of creamy perfection. Dang! At least now I know. The big skillet is for risotto for six, the smaller skillet is for risotto for my household.

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Beets, glorious Beets

Beets and wine

I love beets. I have strong, passionate feelings about beets. This is belied by the fact that I hardly ever cook them. It’s not that I’m afraid of the pink-dyed hands, or the pink-dyed sink, or pink-dyed anything, really. It’s not that they’re time consuming–I cook lots of time consuming things. It’s not that they’re unavailable–I always see beets at the market. I don’t really know why I never cook beets. I just don’t. Until this week. And I was reminded of my love once again, as I ate up my lovely pink-dyed salad today.

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Green Curry with Snow Peas and Chicken

Green Curry

I am very new to the world of Asian cooking. So new, in fact, that this is the first time I’ve made curry that didn’t come straight from a jar, though I love curries of all kinds. For my first attempt, I have to say I’m pretty proud of myself. It could have used perhaps a bit more of the curry flavor, but it was buttery and spicy and the chicken stayed tender and overall, I count it a success.

Even better, it’s pretty darned healthy, which has become a big concern (er, obsession) with me lately. I blame reading Morgan Spurlock and Michael Pollan. Whatever the reason, this dinner fit right in: fresh veggies, organic chicken, and brown rice–I even used light coconut milk, which didn’t seem to diminish the buttery effect I love so much in curry at all. Bonus!

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Pipettes with Sauteed Shrimp and Peppers

Up on Shrimpy Mountain

More fun with alliteration! And a picture that obviously demonstrates Mr. X’s superiority at plating. This alliterative shrimp mountain was actually Saturday night’s dinner, which I’m only getting around to posting about now, despite the fact that it was totally easy and uncomplicated, because I am lazy. Actually, for once, I can claim busy-ness rather than laziness as the reason for my absence. I am currently in the midst of the one two-week period of each semester that I’m actually busy, but have decided today that I had to take my lunch break to satisfy my reading public. Ha. Aaaanyway.

Saturday night’s pasta dinner was awesome, and including prep took under half an hour. And I didn’t even buy my vegetables pre-sliced, a la Rachel Ray. The shrimp were a brilliant afterthought, too–we saw them at the market for less than the peppers cost, so in they went and I am glad they did. Not for the least reason that I got a great lesson in how to devein shrimp, way more efficiently than I did it last time I tried. Yay! Poop veins begone!

I’ll actually relay the recipe with all the prep steps included, so you can see that it really does take only about half an hour to do everything. Faster, even, if you’re a better chopper than me. I’m pretty slow with a knife, thus dooming any hopes I have of becoming a professional chef. Ah well.

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Pizza Chronicles, Part 3: Whole Wheat Crust and Turkey Meatballs

Whole Wheat Crusted Pizza

Apparently, it is my kitchen mission to mix and toss and stretch and top until I find the perfect home kitchen pizza dough. This, my friends, is the best I’ve tried so far. The crust was the closest to crispy its been yet, and any shortcomings are surely the fault of the pan on which I cooked said pizza, and not the crust itself. This time around I gave that dough a full 24-hour fermentation period. I let the oven heat for over 45 minutes, at 500F. I finally managed to stretch a pizza dough without ending up with huge gaping holes in random places. I think, yes, I believe I’m finally getting the hang of this!

The topping on this best-yet pizza dough was none too shabby, either. Fontina cheese, fresh mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, and some leftover turkey meatballs (from the meatball trauma of weeks ago)–man, this thing was deeelicious. After taking it out of the oven I sprinkled some coarsely ground sea salt and dried oregano over the thing, to loud and resounding applause from Miss Crystal. I had originally thought to add capers, and decided not to, but I’m thinking that would have been a nice idea.

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Astypalaian Biscuits, sort of

Last week I found this random recipe for Greek Saffron biscuits. I am new the world of saffron, but I love Greek food, and these sounded pretty good. Apparently, they are these religious holiday-related biscuits that are only made on this Greek Island called Astypalaia. The ladies of the island of course harvest local saffron, and they make these only once a year or something, and they’re special. They also are supposed to take something like seven hours. I do not have seven hours of baking patience, especially not these days. So I decided to modify a little. Call it sacreligious if you will. This version is probably not the way they are supposed to be, but they were still good. Ignore the fact that they are shaped a little like poo.

These are meant to be baked for five hours at a low temperature, until all the moisture has been baked right out of them and they are presumably rock hard. This seems to make them last longer or something? I don’t really like rock hard biscuits. I baked them for less time. I also couldn’t find whole-fat cottage cheese at the hippy mart, because it’s the freaking hippy mart. How many times to I have to say it: They have nothing I need, ever, at the hippy mart. The only change I might make to this in the future would be to add a ton more salt, because I like things salty. But as they are these are very unique savory biscuit treats.

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The Frozen Bananoid Disaster of Aught-Seven

Frozen Bananoid, kind of

Last week I got the inclination to re-create one of my favorite childhood treats–Frozen Chocolate-covered Bananas. My favorite children’s cookbook calls them Frozen Bananoids, which, aww, isn’t that cute. I should probably have consulted said favorite children’s cookbook yesterday, when I finally got around to actually making this favorite delectable treat. I left out a crucial ingredient and ended up with a banana disaster.

Disaster may be too strong a word, really. No one was harmed, and the frozen banana things are edible, even if they do look a little weird. I just feel like a bit of a dumbass for screwing up a recipe I made a million times when I was ten.

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Super Spicy Shrimp and Red Onion Pasta

UPDATE: I re-made this dish in 2010, after I learned a few more things about cooking. Don’t forget to check out the much better version.

In my quest to eat more healthier things, I ran an epicurious search for foods not filled with butter. It didn’t come up with a lot, but a recipe for Spiced Shrimp and Red Onion Saute caught my eye. It looked fast, it didn’t require a ton of ingredients (other than spices, which I already have), and it looked relatively light. Plus, I love shrimp. I decided this would be an excellent Tuesday night meal, served over pasta, and with a little spinach thrown in, for greenery and extra vitamin purposes.

Well, it was very fast, and I’m assuming pretty healthy, but it was also so spicy I could hardly eat it. I also think I needed to add more shrimp, more spinach, and less onion, all of which alterations may happen in the future, because overall I think this was a pretty good dinner. Below, the recipe as followed, with my parenthetical alterations.

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Sesame Chicken; or, Drunken Garlic Chicken Mishaps

Sesame Chicken and Broccoli

There are many reasons I should not be allowed to cook after a few or five beers, and Saturday night’s dinner involved several of them. I tend not to read recipes very well, and then I tend to immediately forget what I just read. Thus, what was meant to be Garlic Chicken didn’t actually have any, um, garlic in it. Yeah, I don’t know how that happened.

It did, however, turn out pretty darned well, and if I hadn’t already told Mr. X I was making Garlic Chicken, I could have gotten away with pretending I had been planning to make Sesame Chicken all along. The chicken was nice and tender and the broccoli wasn’t too mushy, and I amazingly managed to cook the rice perfectly, even though I didn’t pay any attention to how long I was actually cooking it. Maybe drunken cooking isn’t really so terrible, after all.

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