If there is one thing that I haven’t tried, it’s baking. I’ve heard that “If Cooking is an art, Baking is a science”. Well…I am somewhat of a nerd, so maybe baking will come easy? lol So, armed with my Alton Brown “I’m Just Here for More Food” book, I’m going to try and shoot for making some muffins. I’m debating between blueberry and chocolate as I love them both equally…and really hope I don’t botch it. So, I hope ya’ll getout and enjoy some of this weekend…Steph and I are headed up to the Decordova musem to hear Steve Almond read from his book “Candy Freak“, so…all in all, should be one sweet weekend!

Yeah, once in a while I’ll be flippin’ around the channels and come across some poker tournament. The closest I’ve ever come to a casino poker game has been last Feb. when “Diamond” Dave and I lost a combined $260 playing Let It Ride in about an hour down at Mohegan Sun. That said, I do love it when some joker with a fun name like “Chris Moneymaker” throws in all of his chips…walks away from the table while the annoucers are screaming about how he went “All in”. As I sat at work on Tuesday, I was contemplating what I had in the fridge and how I could make it into a dinner….I had left over tomat’s, potates and Zuch from the previous night that’s I’d better do something with….I had some turkey sausage from the other week that I HAD to use. Hrm…could do a stir fry of some kind….oh wait…how about some sorta soup?!?!? Hadn’t made any soup beyond an onion…Maybe it’s time to go ALL IN!!

When thinking about a soup…I thought it might be nice to have some sorta ‘hot/sour’ soup, like you might get at a Chinese restaurant. After doing some research I realized that what I needed was chicken broth and rice wine vinegar. Well…neither was too big of a problem, but I substituted Apple Cider for rice vinegar as I figured I could use it later on in more applications…what I had before me resembled this:

I also had the bright idea that I was going to not only use Chili/Garlic sauce, but also a couple of the serano chilies my pal Al gave me. “AH HA!” I thought…no way am I gonna process these without some gloves!! My eyes were thanking me as I donned some surgical gloves to cut up the chili as well as a small onion. The onion went into the cast iron dutch oven with some of the curry/ginger oil while some EVOO went in the cast iron skillet for the sausage:

Yes, different wooden spoons for both to avoid cross contamination (can you hear Alton Brown talking through me). The onions became translucent as I added the potatoes thinking they’d take a while to get soft….after a bit…the zucchini went into the pot. At this point I deglazed the sausage with a bit of the chicken broth. In addition, it was now time to add the rest of the broth into the dutch oven and add some SPICES! The chili/garlic went in as well as the serano chili, vinegar and thyme. I brought the ’soup’ up to a boil and dipped a spoon in to try as I kicked the heat back to a simmer. Ok, now the fact that I turned bright red and began coughing could’ve been a sign that the ’soup’ was too hot, but whatever! I pressed on, eventually adding the sausage to the pot.

SMOKIN’!!

As I finished off the dish with some left over Gruyere and some cilantro, I wasn’t quite sure what I got myself into, but I was determined to give it a whirl. You know…it WAS damn hot, but not inedible…it was, a bit hotter than a ‘hot/sour’ soup, but it wasn’t terrible and who can argue how yummy sausage is(beyond vegetarians…I know)?

Lessons Learned: Less is more when adding spicay stuff! Gotta figure out how to mellow out heat better I think I’m looking forward to my class in making soups…I think I need it!! lol

FINISHED!!!

Bouch (Jenn) posted up this recipe last week that looked intriguing. I feel somewhat bad as I don’t cook vegetarian all the time, so I don’t get feedback from my most supportive audience (Steph). Thus, with knife in hand I began the process of slicin’ up some major vegetables.

Onions, potatoes, tomatoes all got choppy chopped. I had caught the later train on Monday because of a meeting and the kitchen was still a mess from the night before (filet mignon project). I was really a nervous wreck as although the place was a mess, I wanted to get the food in the oven as it was going to take quite a bit of time to cook. I used some of the curry/ginger oil to saute up the onions which would act as the base for the dish. Eventually, it was time to put the whole shebang together. And per my rushing around…what dish did I need? Oh yeah…the same dish that needed to be washed from the night before. Typical for the nights work.

Looks pretty, eh? It was even better looking when it was totally cooked with some cheese!! Oh man did that smell good when cooking

Lessons Learned: Well, I’m not 100% sure I followed the recipe to the letter as I had lots of leftover veggies

Also, I forgot to add the garlic…I don’t think it was missed as there was tons of flavor in the dish. I will say, the curry/ginger oil passed with FLYING COLORS!! Dang…was super yummy and added some nice depth to the dish. I probably would’ve made another little dish wish the leftovers, but at that point I was totally wasted.

FINISHED!!

I’m at Shaws grocery store yesterday picking up some Jamacian curry powder for an infused Ginger/Curry oil courtesy of a Ming Tsai recipe when the woman bagging asked “Are you here buying for yourself or did someone send you?” For some reason I could feel myself turn scarlett red as I told her that indeed I was there for myself….I have no idea why I was embarassed I mean, who cares? Anyhoo…onwards…kickin’ it off we had our base ingredients

I had no idea if I had bought enough ginger for the equivilant of half a cup of minced ginger. Ug! So, since I don’t have a microplane it was on to my friend the box grater…needless to say, I’ve never minced this much ginger before and although I fought the good fight…I think the ginger won:

A quart of oil and my cast iron dutch oven awaited my newly minced ginger as I flipped on the stove to a nice medium.

Once the ginger began to color, I took it of the heat and dumped a cup of the curry powder into a saute pan over medium heat. I whisked often as I’ve been told that curry can burn super fast. By dry roasting, it releases the essential oils. I went with some Jamacian curry as although Ming recommended Madras curry…I couldn’t find it! lol As soon as the curry powder began to smoke I added the ginger/oil and brought to a simmer

Taking it off the heat I let it cool then put it in a Mason jar for storage in the fridge. I’m gonna try this out along with Jenn’s vegetarian dish and hopefully it should add an interesting dimension on the vegetables!

Lessons Learned: I might have turned down the heat a bit when toasting the curry powder. I was semi paranoid about burning the powder and it seemed to cook fairly fast. Ginger really gets super slick and I think I’m going to avoid using my box grater again for it….my knuckles and finger tips just can’t take it anymore.

FINISHED!!

Last week Steph picked up a copy of Cooks Illustrated for me. I had never seen the mag before, but it had lots of fun articles and tips. One of them was a pepper encrusted Fillet Mignon that really caught my interest. I’ve cooked other pieces of meat before, but none that thick so I decided to give it a whirl on Sunday. Prep looked fairly easy as I started off by crushing some peppercorns and flipped on the Pogues (nothing like some Irish music while cookin’!)

I used a cast iron skillet to bash the heck outta them…worked out fairly well then it was on to putting them in a pan with some oil to simmer for a bit. I never use to use a cast iron skillet before I met Stephanie, but now I find it great for everything from sauteing to smashin’ stuff!! lol Allegedly, this process mellows up the peppercorns bite, but who knows if it really would work

Once that was done simmering, I let it cool to room temperature, added some salt then packed it on the meat. I had earlier cut up my fingers a bit grating some ginger for another project, and adding pepper to open wounds wasn’t 100% fun!! lol I had to wrap the now pepper encrusted tenderloin to rest for an hour so that it held onto the crushed pepper.

Now that the meat had rested I pumped up the oven to 400 degrees and got the cast iron skillet nice and hot. I seared the meat per the instructions causing quite a bit of smoke…I didn’t know if this was because of the pepper crust or what…but it seemed a bit more smoky than usual. Our condo has 2 smoke detectors…however, since they are RIGHT next to the kitchen, the both go off if there is smoke. Needless to say, I planned ahead and took ‘em down prior to searing! After searing it was into the oven for another 5 minutes then onto slotted cookie sheet to rest. While it was resting, I made an infused blue cheese butter. There was supposed to be chives, but I didn’t feel it was worth it for the extra $ as I don’t really love butter on my steak. I think the final plating says it all…looks pretty yummy, eh?

Some lessons learned….the Peppercorns did indeed mellow out after sauteing them…the steak was indeed really good, but it could’ve used another couple minutes in the oven. I don’t know why I had to put it on a cookie sheet instead of continuing to use the cast iron skillet. Blue cheese butter…pass…give me the straight up steak next time Oh..btw…my Mother in law thought my picture was too serious looking…so I took a new self portrait…like?

FINISHED!!

So, there are times when all I want to do is sit at home and have something super easy to cook and as I sat at work on Wednesday afternoon I was thinking….hrm…burgers…but then I thought…maybe I should look up something more interesting on line. That said…I found Rachael Ray’s Sloppy Joe recipe. It looked interesting…but 1/4 cup of brown sugar plus tomato paste made me a bit wary of adding that much sugar. As I went to the store to buy the ingredients I had a couple brainstorms….#1. I would use a bit less sirloin and add(insert Iron Chef voice here)SWEET ITALIAN CHICKEN SAUSAGE and #2. I’m gonna kick up the heat on this recipe by adding a little:

BAM!! Jalepeno and Chili Garlic sauce! I know…a little crazy as I began choppin’ away I thought this would be a good take on a traditional easy to cook dish. Eventually I got all the prep work done:

Then proceeded to forget the first rule about working with hot peppers….DON’T RUB YOUR EYES after handling them. YEOWCHAS! Not good times as I began to saute the meats…eventually adding just a splash of brown sugar and some of Emeril’s Southwest Seasoning. Eventually, I stirred in the peppers and onions. I went with red onions instead of yellow as they seem to retain their flavor a bit more than yellow. About this time, Steph came home as I discussed what I was cooking “Maybe you should add in less than what you think of for the tomato sauce” I was already wary of using the tomato paste along with the tomato sauce….so I used a bit less of the tomato sauce and pitched the paste (actually…put it away for later use) and let it simmer.

After simmer for a bit…it reduced down the sauce…maybe not as thick as I would’ve liked…but that was ok. The final plating included putting it over a whole wheat pita (a roll would’ve been best…but it’s SO much damn bread! lol) and some shavings of gruyere cheese. Yum…it was sweet while at the same time a bit spicy…a good upgrade for a dish I’ve probably only had a couple times in my life and may just make again…though I might thicken the sauce a bit more

FINISHED!!

So, I’m sitting at work on Monday thinking to myself “what would be something different that we haven’t had in a while in the Galvani/Gonski household”. Then I thought…how ’bout some SHRIMP! Haven’t had shrimp in a dogs age and I haven’t really cooked it that much. It was a chilly day so I knew that I could stop at the store and leave said shrimp in the car while I went to the gym. Only issue is that STAAAH (Star) Maaaaket(Market)’s fish department should be condemned. Thus, I decided that frozen shrimp was the way to go….besides…most shrimp is frozen anyhoo. Points for anyone who can identify my title quote.

I went to the store, bought my stuff and hit the gym. I came home, and (after washing hands) I started some Trader Joe’s Brown Basmati rice (which takes 40 minutes to cook) and defrosting the shrimp. Now…I’ve normally defrosted the shrimp just in some sorta colander, but I read somewhere that ‘washes away flavor’ and to put in a ziplock which is just what I did:

I hopped in the shower and was super excited when I came out because I got to wear my new monkay boxers…if seeing me in monkay boxers (under shorts) and my Alton Brown Apron isn’t the sexiest thing you’ve ever seen I don’t know what is

I’m cooking another Bobby Flay recipe. Gulf Shrimp with Green Chili Slices. It seemed a bit different than just garlic and butter which is why I wanted to try something different. Here’s everything before prep.

Note the Santoku blade..I love it…makes for quick choppy choppy After getting everything chopped I peeled the shrimp (easy because they were deveined already). The bag/defrost worked fairly well for those keeping score at home. I got the pan smokin’ hot then added the oil…I’ve never seared shrimp…and with the high degree of water they spurted oil all over the place! lol, However, I was able to get them seared very nice then I removed them to a separate dish:

How nice are those? I threw in the peppers and softened them up, adding garlic after a little bit. I didn’t have the time/desire to make my own shrimp stock so I substituted light chicken broth, making sure I got up all the shrimp bits from the bottom of the pan and brought the whole shebang to a boil:

Reduced the liquid by (about) half then I stirred in fresh Cilantro and some butter (after removing from the heat) Man, it was good eats…just for ya’ll at home, I thought I’d make a nice presentation just for you…I hope you like, next time I’ll try not to have the basil oil run!hehe

Finished!

So, this weekend I decided I was gonna make Bobby Flay’s Camembert-Caramelized Onion Quesadilla with Apple Chutney. It looked pretty good on TV the other day and I was curious to try and make it because…#1. It involved apples in a savory application #2. I’ve never had Camembert cheese and #3. It involved carmelizing onions which I hadn’t really done well.

Starting out with our vegetables it seemed like a good idea to begin with the yellow sweet onions since they’d need about 45 minutes to cook. My friend Priya told me once that the way to avoid teary eyes (which I was getting) was to peel them under running water. Onions chopped, into a pan of butter and EVOO they went.

Then we were on to chopping up the base ingredients for the apple chutney

I remarkably made it through the prep process with no cut fingers! This was a milestone for me, as last week I had chopped my thumb pretty good with the peeler…now I’ve cut myself before with the knives but man…the peeler hurts like a SOB!! I don’t own a microplaner for the ginger, so I used an Alton Brown recommendation and wrapped my grater in plastic wrap and it worked pretty damn well!

As the onions were happily carmelizing away I started in on cooking the vegetables and apples for the chutney.

The onions and vegetables/apples cooked down to a soft consistency as I got out the cheese and cut off the rind. Soft like a brie, it was tough cutting off the rind as it quickly turned the consistency of butter. Ug! I laid out the torilla’s and evenly (as much as I could) distributed the carmelized onions and cheese. I started warming up the grill pan (as that’s what we do out here in the ‘burbs with no real grill). I made little three tiered quesadillas while removing the chutney to a bowl for cooling

Grilling the three Quesadillas was an education on how long to leave them on the grill for. Steph seemed to like them more crispy..and I had to agree. The cheese was very melty…a bit too much at times.

Finishing the dish off Steph made some guacamole (which ROCKED!) and we had some corn chips. We both really liked the dish, but agreed that the cheese probably could’ve been different…it was a bit too melty. Maybe next time…..a havarti would be substituted. The chutney was great…a little spicy a little sweet. Steph completed the dish with a Corona which I would recommend for anyone having this. All in all…it probably would be pretty good dish for a partay if you wanna try something different. I also would recommend going with flour tortillas as although whole wheat is good…nothing beats old school white flour for taste

Finished!

I watch a lot of shows on the food network. I seem to be streaky with whom I like watching as I seem to learn a lot from each individual chef. Lately, I’ve been watching quite a bit of Bobby Flay and I decided that I was gonna learn how to cook chicken and steak in a new way. Now, I don’t have a grill, but I do have a cast iron skillet…Normally, cooking chicken ends up being more like stir fry rather than searing. Thus last week I bought a pound of chicken breasts and was determined to figure this out.

Night one…..tried to make my own marinade with all sorts of crazy ingredients…not enough oil in the marinade and ended up creating a ton of jalapeno infused smoke that sent Steph’s eyes watering and me coughing

Night two…only seasoned the chicken breast with salt/pepper and put oil (EVOO) in the pan directly…turning down the heat. Both sides seared fairly well and I finished in the oven. I would rate this as a sucess!

Night three….similar to night two except that I created a sauce using dried Ancho chilies. As I took the chicken out of the oven after searing…it felt a bit too squishy. Cutting into it confirmed….it wasn’t cooked enough…should’ve left it in for a while longer. Sauce turned out to be great…like an earthy tomato sauce.

Night 4 STEAK! Using the lessons I learned with the chicken I got a couple NY strip steaks and a French recipe for a shallot/wine sauce. I got the pan SUPER hot, liberally brushed on EVOO on S/P seasoned steak and let ‘er rip! It worked perfectly I was even able to put together a nice sauce that included a reduced French Bordeaux, Shallots and some beef broth that went on top…all in all…not a bad experience taking Steak from concept to sauce

So…I’ve been digging cooking lately. I’ve always been fascinated with watching TV shows about cooking and now with a DVR I’m able to watch many more cooking shows at warp speed! That said, I’ve never really been into cooking too much beyond makin’ Chili with mi madre around football season. Lately, that has all changed….I’ve been experimenting more with cooking and armed with some super sharp knives, a sodium distribution device and an $80 pepper mill…I’m cooking quite a bit. That’s what this blog will be about….my adventures in cooking, what works, what doesn’t and how many damn ways I can slice my fingers. As I love photography…I’ll be taking pictures of what I cook (good, bad or otherwise) and links to the recipies if I find them online. As always…suggestions, complaints and flames are welcome! Hope you check in often.