The Kitchen Illiterate

End of the Summer Nectarine Galette

About two weeks ago, I set out to make a nectarine pie. I bought some nectarines, mixed up a batch of pie dough, and set it in the fridge to chill. And when I got to making the filling, I realized that the whole carton of nectarines was rotten and there were ants in the sugar! Infuriating! I was going on vacation, so I threw the pie dough in the freezer and tried to forget the whole debacle.

Last night I finally bought fresh nectarines and another box of sugar, but instead of making a pie, I thought I would try a galette, instead. Galettes are so much less fussy, and also smaller, which is good for a household of only three. Pies always end up being thrown away almost whole, because we can never eat that much pie. And now that I realize how much easier galettes are, I will very likely make them all the time. Who need a pie pan, anyway? They are just excess kitchenware.
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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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Everything Summer Risotto

I think it’s pretty much official that risotto is my go-to dish whenever I’m cooking celebratory meals for others. It’s easy and impressive, and I can talk and sip wine during the endless stirring process. So when I had the chance to steal the kitchen away from my little brother and make dinner for the family, risotto was a sure bet. Of course, I didn’t steal the kitchen entirely away from my brother, and with both of us throwing ideas and ingredients around, this risotto ended up a surprisingly delicious hodge-podge of deliciousness: bacon, mushrooms, leeks, green beans, manchego cheese, basil, parsley, chives, and homemade chicken stock flavored with fresh thyme and oregano. Served with a big Caesar salad (with Patrick’s homemade balsamic Caesar dressing) and goat cheese crostini, this was a perfect, summery dinner to share with my family on my first night home.

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Banana Bread Ice Cream

Oh man, where the heck have I been? Well, sadly, no where. I didn’t go on vacation or anything. I have just been sitting on my tuchus, watching Big Love, reading the Twilight books, and eating way too much frozen, prepared, and/or take out food. Why, you ask? I don’t know. I just got really, very lazy and felt incredibly uncreative. And when I did manage to spend some time standing in front of the stove, my camera was no where to be seen and the mere thought of trying to blog about any of it was exhausting. How pathetic. I guess the end of summer vacation might do that to a person?

Well, I am going on vacation now, home to San Diego to see the fam, and I have plans for some cooking there which will definitely be shared. But I wanted to be sure to leave you with something small before I left. Small, but delicious: Banana Bread Ice Cream.

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Top Five Pizzas in the KI Kitchen

I, like many others, am kind of obsessed with pizza. In fact, I’ve been debating since I was about twelve which is the more perfect food, pizza or burritos, and I’m honestly starting to lean toward pizza (please don’t let my brothers hear that). The thing is, while both offer all four food groups in one tasty and easy-to-eat package, pizza just leaves room for more creativity. Sure, you can get creative with “burritos” when you start to call them wraps, but that’s just not quite the same. And you know what? I can put all the things I love about burritos (mmm, carne asada) on a pizza, so…I think it really is the heavyweight champion of my personal square meal debate.

And I’ve made a lot of pizzas here, especially now that I’ve figured out the trick to dealing with sticky dough (I love you parchment paper). And especially since I’ve figured out that I can stop at Bertucci’s on my walk home from work and, for $2, buy uncooked pizza dough that is 50 times better than anything I’ve managed to turn out in my own kitchen so far. And, if you’ve been reading this here bloggity blog for awhile, you might have noticed that I rarely make a red-sauce-and-pepperoni style pizza. I’m all about experimentation, and putting all kinds of unexpected things on that lovely round of raw dough. And I’ve decided that it’s about time for a best-of-the-best list here at the Kitchen Illiterate. These are my favorite, top five things to do with pizza.

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Chicken Pasta Provencal, a new kitchen staple

At the beginning of the summer, I vowed to cook at least one meal a week from entirely local ingredients. I have completely failed in this endeavor. I’ve only even been to the farmer’s market once. Every year, when spring rolls around, I get so excited about fresh, local produce but then fail to take advantage. I am one of those people for whom convenience is everything, it’s true, and finding locally grown and produced food takes time and effort.

The closest I came to an entirely local meal was this pasta dish, and, well, the chicken and the pasta are not exactly from around here. The produce, though? The most brilliant yellow summer squash I’ve ever seen, a perfect heirloom tomato, fresh basil, a sprig of rosemary, all of it from Massachusetts farms and all of it kind of unbelievable. No, this dinner was not 100% local. I’m just not that disciplined. What it was, though, was delicious and possibly my new favorite summer meal.

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King Arthur’s Blitz Bread, or Ghetto Foccaccia

Most of the time, I enjoy cooking projects that are complicated, things that involve many steps and often bewildering instructions. I did recently try to make sourdough from my own starter, which, sadly, was an utter disaster. I’ve been dreaming of making croissants for awhile (I hear this is a three day process), and I have in the past tackled tortillas, chicken mole, homemade pasta, tortilla espagnola, paella: foodstuffs which have a (sometimes) deserved reputation for difficulty. But I have always stopped short of breads that involve making a biga or a poolish. I mean, just look what happened with my starter! Whenever I see a bread recipe that reads “add 1 cup biga” I tend to run the opposite direction, which is a shame, because that stuff is what makes bread really really good.

I am trying to get over this pre-ferment fear, but in the meantime, I’ve discovered a way to make foccaccia without a pre-ferment.
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Slow Cooked Al Pastor-style Pork

This summer is passing much too quickly for my taste. I can’t believe my birthday has come and gone, and even worse, that it’s taken me over a week to blog about this year’s pork spectacle. I’m not sure when or how I decided that my birthday was an ideal occasion for very large, fatty pieces of pork to be slow cooked in various ways, but that seems to be the new tradition, and I’m already plotting next year’s preparation of the other white meat.

But I am getting ahead of myself. This year I got it into my head that I wanted to make al pastor. I’m not quite sure why. In fact, I had never had al pastor. When I was a kid in San Diego, I was a pretty firm believer that carne asada burritos were the only respectable way to go. And al pastor is meant to be cooked on a vertical rotisserie. It’s not like I have one of those sitting around. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t stop thinking about al pastor for weeks, and it seemed as though I would really have no choice for the birthday feast: al pastor it would have to be.

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Tuna and White Bean Sandwiches

This past weekend was my birthday, and as usual, I spent a lot of time cooking. Slow-cooked pork seems to be something of a tradition, and this year, I made al pastor-style pork for a Mexican feast. It was crazy delicious, and I promise to tell you all about it once I’ve recovered a bit. But today, still reeling from a busy, adventurous birthday weekend, I wanted something easy, and I hit upon what might be my new favorite sandwich.

About a year ago I read about making tuna sandwiches with mashed cannellini beans instead of mayonnaise, and it sounded like an excellent alternative: a little lighter, maybe, and I can never say no to beans. But it took me awhile to get around to it, which is unfortunate, because it’s a perfect summer sandwich. I know, I know, tuna isn’t perhaps the safest thing to be eating, but I love it, mercury be damned. And on days like today, when my house is so hot and steamy I can barely move, it’s pretty nice not to have to get anywhere near the stove.

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