vegetables – Page 5 – The Kitchen Illiterate

Quintessential Summer Dinner: BBQ Chicken, Potato Salad, Corn, and Biscuits

I told you I ate a lot of great food in San Diego. The best part of my trip was being able to enjoy awesome meals with my family and friends. There is something perfect, something I miss everyday living here in Boston, about sitting at a table with people I love, sharing food and conversation. I grew up in a house where family dinners were important: I remember waiting every night for dinner until everyone was home from work and school and practice and whatnot before we sat down to eat, and now that I’m an adult (ahem, ha ha) I realize how great, and perhaps uncommon, it is that my parents brought us up like that. So, thanks ma and pa. You guys are rad.

The last night I was in San Diego, my aunt and uncle and their two kids came for dinner, and we cooked up this way-too-classic summer dinner: barbecue grilled chicken, corn on the cob, German potato salad, and buttery biscuits. The only thing missing, perhaps, was apple pie. But we had vanilla ice cream with strawberries instead, which is pretty perfectly summery itself. And this dinner was truly a group effort. I made the barbecue sauce and biscuits, Mom made the potato salad, my brother’s grilled the chicken and corn, and Dad entertained us all, the goofball.

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Tri Tip, Asparagus, and Roasted Potatoes a la Patrick

After taking over his kitchen on Thursday night, I stepped out of the way and let Patrick cook dinner for my family and a few of our friends on Saturday. And I am glad I did. He grilled up some beautiful Tri Tip steak, roasted potatoes, and put together a unique asparagus dish with roasted red peppers and slivered almonds. All of it was spectacular. And I’ve been bugging him for the recipe, which he briefly relayed to me over dinner, but have heard nothing. So I’m going to have to attempt to recreate it from memory. Perhaps if I’m lucky he will post any corrections in the comments (hint, hint to the brother).

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What Can You Do with Beluga Lentils?

My trips to Trader Joe’s are few and far between. So when they add cool new stuff to their shelves, I don’t usually know about it until it’s not exactly cool and new anymore, at least not to anyone but me. I don’t know how long they’ve been selling pre-cooked black Beluga lentils, but I saw them and I had to have them. They look so unique and intriguing, like caviar or little shiny pebbles. But what does one do with lentils?

For some reason, I expected them to taste different from other lentils. Yeah, I’m not always the most logical person. They tasted like lentils, and hence, were not at their best as a side dish. A little dry. A little boring. Thankfully, the swordfish and Moroccan-seasoned vegetables I ate them with were plenty flavorful on their own. And I used the leftovers to make a chicken, lentil, and green bean salad that was more delicious than I expected, so not all of those beautiful, gleaming black lentils were wasted.

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Polenta and Vegetables with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

While my chocolate creme brulee may have been a triumph, since then I’ve experienced nothing but culinary catastrophes. “But that food doesn’t look catastrophic,” you may be thinking. That just goes to show that my new camera has more talent in the kitchen than I do. That, my friends, was a burned vegetable, bitter sauce disaster. In fact, the original sauce is NOT the sauce pictured above. The original sauce had to be thrown away because it was horrible and could not be salvaged with all the spices in my gigantic spice rack. I ended up using basic tomato sauce, because I needed something to cover up the taste of burnt asparagus.

I hate it when meals I’ve been anticipating turn out to be completely not rad.

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Cauliflower Broccoli Flan with Spinach Bechamel

I’m not really sure why this is called a flan. It didn’t really seem like flan to me, but perhaps I didn’t make it quite right. Still, it was delicious, and I highly recommend you make room on your plate for this dish as soon as possible. Like Chicken Florentine, this side dish can pretend be very healthy, what with all the vegetables. However, beneath its green and vitamin-filled-seeming appearance lurks decadence: creamy, cheesy, wonderful decadence.

I first came across this recipe a few years ago. A housemate at the time discovered it in the May 2005 issue of Bon Appetit, and she raved about it non-stop. She made it at least three times in the short few months I lived with her, and when I moved out, she realized she hadn’t copied the recipe and begged me to email it to her. Yet despite her raves, I never thought to make it myself. I was still feeling undecided about cauliflower, so I promptly forgot about it. And for some reason I have yet to understand, a few weeks ago I remembered it. My feelings about cauliflower had since become decisively positive, so I decided I had to try it out, to see what all the fuss was about.

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Fiddlehead Ferns: A sign that spring has finally arrived

Even though it was cold and rainy all weekend, I knew spring had truly arrived when we went to the market yesterday: The place was full of bright shiny produce the likes of which haven’t been seen around here for over six months. I was giddy, and my carefully planned (short) grocery list was quickly forgotten. And in the midst of the bountiful bounty, an unmistakable sign of spring sat, quietly curled up and waiting for me to discover it.

I had never heard of fiddlehead ferns before moving to Boston, and had no idea anyone would ever want to eat any kind of fern. When Mr. X pointed them out to me a few years ago, I thought for sure these east coast people were insane, but I’m nothing if not adventurous (if only culinarily) so I bought some, sauteed them, and realized that even if these east coast people are crazy, they are totally right about the fiddlehead ferns. They taste so fresh and green and almost grassy, they are a wonderful arbiter of warmer (and better fed) days ahead.

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Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad

Last week was by far the craziest, busiest week I’ve experienced in grad school. But though I couldn’t find time to share my culinary endeavors here, I was, in fact, endeavoring (er?). And one of those endeavors involved some roasted butternut squash. I saw a recipe for this butternut squash salad on Orangette months ago, and while she may not have been able to hold out for winter to make it, I somehow managed to hold out until winter was almost over (at least, I hope winter is almost over). And honestly, I think this salad is more springy than wintery anyway. Sure, there’s roasted squash in there, but the lemony tahini dressing and the cilantro give this hearty salad a bright, summery taste. Perfect for bridging these last few months of cold, grey Boston.

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Cold Day, Roast Chicken, Raw Vegetables?

These are actually raw

For Christmas this year, I got a digital meat thermometer, the kind with a wire that attaches the probe to a fancy digital read out. I thought, “Finally! I can stop undercooking my roast chickens!” Yes, it’s the sad truth: I am a disaster when it comes to roast chicken. I can never manage to cook them all the way through, no matter how long I leave them in the oven, no matter how clear those thigh juices appear to run when I prick them with a fork. I start cutting them up and realize I have to immediately throw them back in the oven, in their half mutilated state. It’s disappointing, and not very photogenic. This digital thermometer was going to change all that.

A few weeks ago, my good friends over at Festivus Gastronomicus had a little moving sale (because unfortunately for everyone in Boston they are heading back to L.A.), and I ended up with their very lovely and large roasting pan. All of the elements converged, and I decided this was the week to roast a chicken. Well something went horribly, horribly wrong.

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Unexpected deliciousness, in casserole form

Yellow Cauliflower

Last week felt like the beginning of casserole season in Boston: Cool, crisp days, leaves falling from trees, and sweaters unearthed from boxes in the back of the closet. My favorite time of year. And what happens? Suddenly, the temperatures shoot back up into the 80s, and turning the oven on starts to sound like less of a good idea. What is up, Boston? Why do you toy with my emotions? Why do you confuse my wardrobe, not to mention by immune system?

No matter. Last week I got in not just one but TWO casseroles, in that brief and glorious 50 degree period. The sad thing I’ve realized about casseroles is that they really don’t photograph well, as evidenced above. That odd monochromatic agglomeration of vegetables belies how absolutely and unexpectedly wonderful it was. I think I can honestly say that was one of the weirdest casseroles I’ve ever made. In fact, I had little faith, as I was tossing the cauliflower and beef together in cheese sauce, that it was even going to be edible. But lo, when I pulled it out of the oven it was a vision of cheesy, crusty, crunchy vegetable goodness. I was shocked. Happily and gluttonously shocked. I’m going to have to be very careful about these kinds of casseroles unless I can figure out how to work gym-going back into my schedule.

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Chicken in Creamy Chive Sauce and Some More Pork

Creamy Chive Chicken

Oy. Once again, time has gotten away from me and I find myself sharing something I cooked a week and a half ago. It was so delicious, though, that I can’t just relegate it to the files of the never posted. And look, Ma, a balanced dinner! I made this for Mr. X and was all worried that it wasn’t going to be that good: I got the recipe from Eating Well, and have found it to be a little hit or miss (my Mediterranean Pasta Bake was kind of bland, even after I added seasoning to the original recipe). This recipe, for Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Creamy Chive Sauce, was a winner.

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