One Local Summer

Just a short note today: I just read about the One Local Summer challenge, and I think this sounds great! One meal a week (at least) cooked with 100% local ingredients (ok, they do make exceptions for oil, spices, and salt and pepper). I think I’m ready to sign up. The Farmer’s Market should be starting back up here in Boston soon (at least, I hope so!), and I have been thinking for a long time about trying to find local sources for dairy and meat.

If anyone knows about local food production in the Boston area, please share!

Chocolate Creme Brulee

The semester is finally over, and I have spent this first week of summer break being very happily lazy. There are a ton of projects I want to work on this summer, including a redesign of this here blog, but right now I am thoroughly enjoying not having anything to do. And what have I been doing with all this free time? Besides re-reading Harry Potter for the seventy-second time, and sleeping in, and taking really long walks in the lovely May weather, I have been, of course, cooking.

Last summer my housemate, Miss Amelia Bedelia, bought me a lovely creme brulee set, which, much to her chagrin, sat unused in the pantry all year long. With Amelia getting ready to leave us for the summer I realized the only fitting and proper thing to do was to break out the torch and make some creme brulee. I also recently received, from the ever-generous folks at Blake Makes and Amano Chocolates, several bars of incredibly rich, perfectly bittersweet dark chocolate. Amelia loves chocolate, Amelia loves creme brulee, so clearly, chocolate creme brulee was the answer.

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Chocolate-Caramel Slice

I received raucous cheers and applause for these babies. I am not kidding, there were whoops and shouts and there was some profuse praise, I think brought on by the sugar high these things induce. They are rich and almost unbearably sweet, the chocolate sugar overdose avoided only by the bits of salt scattered across the top. And they were an overwhelming hit with everyone who tasted them, even the mostly vegan woman who happily ate them despite the fact that they are loaded with butter and sweetened condensed milk.

When I first read the recipe in Bon Appetit, I thought they sounded lovely but were probably more trouble than they were worth. The recipe has three parts: the crust, the caramel, and the chocolate topping. It involved a candy thermometer. It involved cooking and then chilling and then cooking and chilling some more. But I wanted to do something impressive for the last-day-of-class party we had in cataloging, so I thought I’d give it a go, and as it turns out they are not nearly so difficult as they sound.

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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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Finally, Arroz con Pollo

I have been thinking about Arroz con Pollo all week, but the madness of the end of the semester has kept me out of the kitchen. I have been subsisting on bad take out sandwiches, jarred spaghetti sauce, and Boboli. Well, tonight I decided that I’ve been out of the kitchen too long. I took a break from my frantic preparations for my presentation tomorrow to finally put together the dinner I’ve been dreaming of since I watched Jorge Ayala beat Bobby Flay’s ass on Throwdown with his delectable-looking Arroz con Pollo.

I’m not sure my version is anywhere near Ayala’s, but I’m pretty satisfied. The texture ended up more creamy and risotto-like than I expected, but is that ever a bad thing? I realized when I was cleaning up and putting away leftovers that I forgot to add the crushed tomatoes, but I don’t think the flavor was lacking anything for that. And I’ve discovered that adobo seasoning may be one of my new kitchen favorites. The only thing that pushed this a little toward the not-so-favorite dinners is that I’m not a huge fan of chicken thighs. I don’t know why I don’t just realize that once and for all and stop cooking them. I think using bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts rather than thighs would have made this just that much more awesome.

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No food, but some other stuff

Yikes, I have, once again, broken my once-a-week posting rule in the flurry and bustle of finals. I’ve been eating pasta and Boboli with leftovers and nothing impressive enough for the blog. (Well, there was that pork tenderloin Mr. X made last weekend, but I was too tired to take pictures and write about it.

Sadly, I’m not even sure when I’m going to be able to get back to you all with actual foodstuffs. The next two weeks are going to be mad busy: finishing the MySQL/PHP database project, doing a bunch of LC and Dewey classification, finishing up a presentation on our new OPAC for user instruction, and, you know, trying to figure out what the crap I’m going to do this summer. Actually, there are some good developments potentially maybe in the works, but all that stuff belongs on the other blog, and you guys don’t care about the library stuff. You care about the food, so I’ll get right to it.

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Shrimp and Red Pepper Carbonara; or, What’s the big deal about carbonara, anyway?

Shrimp and Red Pepper Carbonara

I tried to make fettuccini carbonara last year for Mr. X, and the result: scrambled egg pasta. I tried to make a very similar Chinese noodle dish a few weeks ago, and the result? Scrambled egg pasta. I have been having a hard time getting this egg sauce thing down, but this week, I believe I finally perfected it. I decided to jump in there and give it another go, and hey! No scrambled egg pasta! However, I did find myself wondering, What is the big deal about carbonara, anyway? I mean, it was good, sure, but was expecting transcendent, and it was not that.

That’s not to say it wasn’t good, and if you like carbonara generally, I’m willing to bit that you would really like this version, with shrimp and blackened red peppers and, of course, bacon.

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Spring Risotto with Gremolata

Spring Risotto

Boston is finally showing signs that spring might appear sometime soon. The trees are budding, the crocuses are blooming, and last Thursday the temperatures hit 72 degrees and I got to leave the house without a coat. The first warm days of the year fill me with a kind of joy I can barely express. I feel instantly lighter. Boston winters are HARD, especially for a wimpy California girl like myself, and I sometimes forget that they’re ever going to end. That first day of sunshine and light breezes gives me hope, and although I know it’s not quite over yet, that winter doesn’t truly end in Boston until mid-May, a 65 degree day here and there is like getting a little gift.

I celebrated the first warm day of the year last Thursday by making an excellent fresh vegetable and herb risotto. I adapted the recipe from something I saw in a recent Bon Appetit: a spring pasta full of vegetables and topped with a blend of parsley and lemon. I thought instantly it would make a great risotto. So I opened up the windows, put some music on, poured myself a glass of wine, and set about making the first risotto I’ve made in months.

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Southwestern Tofu Scramble

Tofu Scramble

I’m not always a big fan of tofu. The texture can be kind of funny, and if you aren’t liberal with the seasonings, you pretty much have a plate of bland. But I came across this recipe a few weeks ago and felt  drawn to it, probably because I am drawn to anything that has the word Southwestern in its title. And I liked it so much that I actually made it twice in two weeks, which is something that just does not happen in this kitchen, as Miss Crystal can well attest.

I will admit, however, that the first time I made it I changed it up a bit, and the second time, I followed the recipe pretty exactly. And frankly, it was a little bit disappointing the second time, even with the addition of homemade quacamole. I don’t know what I was thinking, fiddling with something that was so perfect the first time around, but you can bet I’ve learned my lesson, and I’m here to provide you with the altered and (to my mind) perfected version. Aren’t I just so kind and generous? (Ha!)

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