sauces – Page 4 – The Kitchen Illiterate

Tofu, Noodles, and Peanut Sauce

So, this whole schooling thing is proving way more time consuming than I expected. Updating twice a week? Ok, not so far. It’s actually not that the school work is time consuming. It’s that it is so draining the last thing I want to do when I come home is sit down and write about what I just barely managed to dredge up the energy to cook. Because I have been cooking, and some good stuff, too. Like the above: Tofu, udon noodles, fresh vegetables, and peanut sauce, one of my favorite things in the world.

I may have mentioned before that I have a bit of a thing for peanut butter. Like, I eat it almost everyday. This addiction extends to peanuts, peanut sauce, peanut butter cookies, pretty much anything involving the delicious flavor of that lovely legume, Arachis hypogaea. I’ve experimented with a few different peanut sauce recipes and so far the best I’ve found is from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food. It’s pretty thick, and very strongly peanut-y, but with a nice kick to it. I usually pair it with red peppers and udon noodles, and I find it’s just as delicious cold as it is hot. This sauce has definitely become a kitchen staple.

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Pepper-crusted Lamb Chops with a Red Wine Sauce

Lamby Lamb

It is a sad state of affairs to discover a new love only to realize, in the same moment, that you will more often than not suffer deprivation, that this new object of your affection is just too far outside the grasp of your wallet to be enjoyed on more than a very occasional basis. Such was my lamb chop experience the other night.

It’s not that I’d never had lamb chops before. In fact, I tend to order them whenever I see them on a menu. I’ve always been attracted to their diminutive appearance on the plate, like little meat lollipops. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I’ve ever had lamb chops as good as those I made for myself the other night. I don’t like to pat my own back, but damn Gina. How is it that in most restaurants they tend to be a little dried out, a little under seasoned, a little not nearly as good as those you see in that picture above? I really don’t know. Of course, now that I have experienced how tender and amazing and delicious lamb chops can truly be, I have also experienced paying more for them than I thought I’d ever spend on a piece of meat at the supermarket. And I know that these will be an indulgence I seldom get to enjoy.

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Grilled Swordfish with Balsamic Brown Butter Sauce and Zucchini Risotto

Swordfish and Risotto

None of my pictures of last night’s dinner turned out well, because the light in our kitchen is truly crappy, but trust me, it was excellent. This was one of those multiple-pan feats of timing in which everything came together and ended up being one of my best efforts yet. Which was made even better considering I was nervous about my risotto and the sauce was untried and my grill pan experiences have been hit or miss in the past. Yeah, there was some kitchen magic going on last night. Thank god, too, because Miss Crystal had a shitty, shitty day and I like to think that setting a plate of spectacular food in front of her played some small part in making it better. Isn’t that why we feed people, after all?

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Herbed Ricotta-stuffed Chicken Breasts with Sauce Aurore

Stuffed Chicken

I have a newfound respect for those 1950s housewives. How they managed to have dinner ready and on the table when hubby walked through the door and still clean the house, clean the kids, and make sure there was a cocktail waiting for the mister is something I will perhaps never understand. I find it difficult enough to time dinner so it’s ready when Crystal gets home, and last night was certainly a challenge in that area. It was also a challenge in the dish-doing area, because I used almost every saucepan and skillet I have. But it was so worth it.

I wanted to do something kind of fancy, in honor of Crystal’s return (and this after yesterday’s screed about simplicity in the kitchen). She spent ten days in California, and is only here for two weeks before her departure for Spain, and graduate school. I am trying not to cry here, thinking about it. This was certainly fancy, and perhaps one of the best things to come out of the kitchen all summer. Crystal thinks so, at least, and I have to say for once I could find nothing I would improve or fix or change next time. It all worked out quite well, which is shocking considering I was kind of making it up as I went along. And struggling to make sure it was all finished by the time Crystal got home from work.

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Cheater Ravioli, or Awesome Sauce Lobster Ravioli from Trader Joe’s

Update! – This post has long been a popular post here, and I decided it needed a little update. I’ve added new, prettier photographs, and revamped the recipe a bit to make it easier to follow. This is a super simple cream sauce that is perfect with any kind of ravioli, really, and in fact, with any kind of pasta. This sauce is one of the first things I learned to cook, and I love it because it’s very fast and requires only a small handful of ingredients. If you’re looking for a sauce for Trader Joe’s lobster ravioli this is a great choice, because it really lets the lobster shine. Now, back to the original post.

Yesterday I got to borrow the housemate’s car and drive myself out to Trader Joe’s, one of my favorite places in the world and one I don’t get to visit very often, seeing as it’s not very accessible by public transport. Not only did I get to buy cheap vinegar, delicious marinated meat stuffs, and the above pictured lobster ravioli, I got to drive around town all day, revelling in the freedom and glory that is being behind the wheel of a vehicle. God, how I’ve missed it these past four years. God, how I wish I could afford to buy myself a little zippy car to zip around town in. Times like these I am forced to admit that I am a southern California girl at heart, wedded to her stick shifts and safety belts.

This afternoon of vehicular freedom was allowed provided I could transport Crystal to and from work–a guaranteed two hours’ driving time for me, but also a guaranteed late dinner. By the time we got home it was nearly 9:00 and I wanted something simple, fast, and light (it was very hot and sticky in our apartment).
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Buerre Noisette (with some pasta and stuff)

Buerre Noisette

Last night I again found myself in the position of trying to throw together dinner without going to the market. I wanted to try something new, but had to do it using only the ingredients already living in my refrigerator. I wanted to experiment with a new sauce, but having discovered earlier that all of the various dairy products and stocks had gone bad, my options were limited. Not only that but my pasta, chicken and prosciuotto tortellini, was pretty dang flavorful, so I wanted a sauce that wouldn’t overwhelm it. What to do, what to do?

The Joy of Cooking to the rescue! After perusing pages upon pages of sauce recipes and basics, I finally discovered one with only two ingredients. Two ingredients I actually had. A buerre noisette. I only say it the French way because I’m pretentious like that. Otherwise known as a brown butter sauce, it’s pretty much exactly that. You cook butter very slowly over low heat until it’s just about to burn, then add a tiny, teeny bit of an acid (lemon juice or white wine vinegar) and you have about the simplest sauce there is.

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Extra Spicy Mexican Black Bean Pasta

Black Bean Pasta

I found this recipe on Epicurious a few years ago, and for awhile there it was a staple. Since I started this here blog, though, and have been attempting ever fancier dinners, it’s disappeared. The number of cans involved made me feel like it was just not appropriate for sharing, despite the fact that it’s really, really tasty. Yesterday I got a craving, though, and this neglected recipe called to me from the back of my recipe folder: “Eat me!” it cried. “Share me with the world!”

“Fine,” I replied, “but I’m going to fancy you up a bit.” To be honest, I didn’t fancy it up too much, and I’m sure there are better ways than those I devised. Mostly what I did was make it wayyy spicier. Which I love, but I think it brought my housemates to a sweat. Hey–if you’re going to go Mexican, don’t wuss out on the heat. Take it like a man! Or…something.

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Further Forays into Wokitude: Sweet and Sour Chicken

Pineapples anyone?

After the initial swoons over my newly acquired wok, I kind of left it alone and untouched in the pantry for the past few months. What happened to my burning passion to perfect Chinese food? Like many burning passions, it was sudden and powerful and died a young death. Until last night. I had spent some time perusing my own archives, in a fit of vanity, and also to remember what some of the favorites were, when that old spark came back–the wok spark. And back I went to the myriad poorly designed Chinese cooking websites to discover a new recipe.

I was torn between General Tsao’s chicken, a Crystal favorite, and Sweet and Sour chicken, which seemed easier, and laziness won out. I ended up cobbling together two different recipes, and I didn’t fry the chicken, they way it’s usually done in take out joints, because I’ve been eating enough excess fats these days. But I have to say I impressed myself with its take out joint verisimilitude. And no, it’s not bright red. Because you know how they get it bright red? Food coloring.

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Another Mushroom Ragu

Mushroom Ragu Number Two

A few months ago I made this out of control rich and delicious mushroom ragu and intended to make it again, many many times. I think I even said I would attempt to make the gnocchi that went with it from scratch. Needless to say, that hasn’t happened yet. And I wouldn’t want to bore my guests here by making the same thing over and over again, so that particular mushroom ragu hasn’t made a repeat appearance.

But I did see this particular mushroom ragu in, yes, Giada’s Everyday Italian. I told you I’m getting obsessive. Though I’ve noticed this cookbook thing is becoming something of a pattern. At the beginning of the week it’s as though I subconsciously pick one cookbook from which I cook all week. This week was Giada’s turn. Maybe next week will be Middle Eastern week.

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Veggie Riot Stir-fry

I have never been that interested in Chinese food. I’ve stir-fried things before, but it was always just a random conglomeration of ingredients, with no specific sauce, and usually served over pasta. Chinese cooking seemed to rely on an entirely different collection of methods and ingredients that held no particular appeal to me at all.

Until I bought a new wok. I’m not really sure what the power of this wok is. I’ve owned woks in the past, and never felt compelled to toss together Kung Pao Chicken or Beef with Broccoli. This wok, though, immediately sent me to various Chinese cooking websites (not having a single Chinese cookbook in the vicinity of my kitchen) to learn to put together an actual Chinese-style stir-fry. I searched and read and took a trip to the hippy mart, and eventually ended up with this: a crazy mix of delicious vegetables and a soy garlic stir-fry sauce. I ended up with something that actually resembles Chinese food!

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