SOTD: Diorissimo

Today is May 1st, so you know what that means, bring out the lily of the valley scents aka muguet. I keep around a sample of Dior's Diorissimo just for this occasion, because as I mentioned it before I not a big lily of the valley wearer because it is a scent of my tween years. On a plus side the boyfriend really liked it; he is a very floral guy.

On to deliciousness, last night we made steak Diane with garlic mash potatoes and a simple green salad, and this is where you will laugh, topped off with the kitschy of desserts, rice crispie treats. But I didn't feel too guilty considering steak Diane was created in the 1950's. It was all delicious. The recipes I used can be found here:

For Steak Diane:

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/recipe-of-the-day-steak-diane-for-two/

For Garlic Mashed Potatoes

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Garlic-Mashed-Potatoes-103016

These recipes are really easy and really good.

Ended the night by beginning to watch the series Damages, watched the first two episodes, and we are hooked.

New favorite magazine: Mental Floss.

image provided by artnet.com

image: Lily of the Valley by Judith McMillan

Comfort in Spring: Risotto

It's occurred to me that lately I have been cooking a lot of rice comfort foods, last month I made the ever comforting arroz con leche (this recipe a variation of Mexican rice pudding), but this month I have found my self making the savory comforting creamy side of rice: Risotto. Risotto is the perfect comfort food for spring, it is creamy and nourishing, but not heavy unlike winter comfort food, it shows off spring produce perfectly and is enlivened by winter citrus. Last week I made Nigella Lawson's Lemon Risotto; this woman really can do no wrong when it comes to comfort foods, this was gorgeous lovely creamy lemon offset by hints of earthiness with the addition of fresh rosemary. Here's a link to the lovely recipe Nigella Lawson's Lemon Risotto. Last night the risotto love continued with something I had been itching to make forever but had never found a recipe that met my needs: Asparagus Risotto. My first encounter with Asparagus Risotto was with Trader Joe's frozen Asparagus Risotto, which I will say is lovely, but expensive for such a small amount and so the years have gone by with me looking for the perfect Asparagus Risotto recipe, when a few weeks the perfect recipe fell into my lap, provided by the awesome website http://www.simplyrecipes.com/. And here is the recipe that last night the ended my quest for an Asparagus risotto recipe: Asparagus Risotto.

Just a note to those making risotto, always make way more stock than is called for or have hot water on hand, the arborio rice you buy will vary highly in how much stock it takes to cook. In both recipes I used Trader Joe's arborio rice and it required much more liquid than the recipes called for.

Wish to some day get a hold of other Italian rice varieties that are used in risotto.

Also the Asparagus Risotto truly shows off the wonder of risotto in that it can be so creamy with no cream added.

image of arborio rice provided by http://vegeyum.wordpress.com/2007/12/16/basicrisotto/

The season changes the tea changes

On the most part I am the sort of tea lover that needs a cup of malty assam in the morning with a splash of milk or the wonderfully malty and spicy mix of Masala Chai with milk. There is something luxurious in seeing the transformation of dried tea leaves unfurl and create an elixir, that I will admit I am addicted too. Still my variety of tea changes through out the year, in the dead of winter smoky Russian Caravan and exceptionally malty Irish Breakfast grab me ( I still keep my Assam through out the year). Yet with the coming of spring and summer my tea has to change, that is when I change over to green teas and my favorite is the Japanese blend Genmai Cha. This I will say is more a spring tea than a summer tea in that it features a very unique ingredient that warms a drinker up on cool spring days: roasted kernals of rice. The roastiness of this tea is exceptional, it is comforting and soothing, and on cool days of spring it warms, yet it's lovely jade green color reminds you of the new spring greenery surrounding you.

It is also a lovely broth for breakfast rice. I admit I often have leftover rice from the night before and a perfect way too use it up is to warm it up, pour Genmai Cha on top, and add a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds and a sprinkle of salt. It is a comforting and light morning breakfast that is great option for those that do not like sweet nor heavy breakfasts.

image provided by http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=487669&in_page_id=1770 meet the worldest cutest little pig and his voracious appetite for tea.

Should You Find Yourself With Fruit Trees and The Preserving Need

For the last few years I have told myself I would preserve the lush fruit that comes every summer from our bountiful fruit trees. The closest I had come to this was this last winters lemon curd and cranberry curd experiment that went really well. Finally this summer though I have actually made preserves. I made apricot preserves and cinnamon plum preserves. What was shocking was just how easy it was. We still have a ton plums so next I want to try a vanilla plum preserve and well other variations. Hmm, maybe I can find a chutney recipe with plums. The recipe I used was from one of my new favorite blogs Just Hungry at http://www.justhungry.com/2006/06/weekend_project.html. I highly recommend you use the almond pit option. As for me I can't stop marveling at the gorgeous golden orange jars I have waiting to be eaten. My favorite way to enjoy apricot preserves being in an apricot almond butter sandwich on dark whole wheat bread. I need to go get almond butter.

The simplicity is your best friend: A beautifully refreshing fruit salad

Sometimes simplicity is just the best way to go, I made this, this morning to go with my toast, and had to share:

Simple Berry Melon salad:

handful of blueberries (I suspect any berry will do, but these are perfect because they don't break easily)
Quarter of a melon (I used casaba melon which is really similar to honeydew, but what ever you have) cut into chunks (no rind)
a drop of orange flower water (I suppose if using a strawberry watermelon combination the more appropriate choice would be rose water)
a sprinkle of suger (just to bring the juices out)

mix all together and enjoy the refreshing beauty of it. The blueberries and green flesh of the melon looked gorgeous together. The orange blossom water added a light touch of floral but overall was not apparent, but added the little extra oomph that made the salad so lovely.

Should it seem I don't cook anymore....?

Well, that is far from the truth, in the last two weeks I have made soups and pastas. All that of course in my desire to procrastinate or get off my butt from writing a 14 page paper (the biggie in my college career). They were all comfort foods to the max, unfortunately with the oncoming last weeks of any quarter or semester most students find themselves in the position of wanting junk food or comfort food, I am no exception. Between the comfort food needs came the run to the store for junk food. I tried out a few Giada de Laurentiis pasta recipes (one was excellent, the other so-so) and made my original onion potato soup. I also made an excellent Nigella Lawson dip recipe (which i will post about some other day), but instead I will blogging about what I did this weekend, which with the coming months will probabley been impossible, I baked! The recipe came from Gourmet and I must say is one of the easiest muffin recipes I have tried in long time, best part it had lots of berries. Although, I'm reducing the suger in this. So I present:

Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins

6 TBS unsalted butter (melted and cooled)

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (original called for 1 cup)

1/2 cup whole milk (room tempture if you have the time)

1 large egg (room tempture if you have the time)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen, don't need to thaw)

Need: muffin tin with 12 muffin cups (1/2 cup each, a regular muffin tin) and muffin liners.

Oven: Preheat at 400 f.

1. Whisk together milk, butter, sugar, and egg (the mixture will be lumpy, but as Nigella Lawson says the best muffins come from lumpy batters).

2. Stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt. Add the wet mixture until ingredients are just combined. Fold in blueberries gently.

3. Divide equally into muffin tray and bake for 25 to 30 minutes (I suggest you check at 2o minutes), check with toothpick. No goo on toothpick they're are done.

4. Let cool for a little while and enjoy (the give the kitchen a heavenly scent and are so much better then anything you will get at your local coffee shop). Did I mention super easy?

What to do with slightly old strawberries

The truth is quite often I buy berries I forget about them or in the case of raspberries I hyperventilate so much about the actually recipe I want to use them in that I wait to long and they begin to mold. Berries are my favorite fruit but I happen to go nuts fantasizing about what I am going to do with them and then let to much time pass. Then their are the berries that are still edible but the texture is too mushy and they look a little bit funky this really applies the most to strawberries, but I found a recipe that utilizes slightly old and funky strawberries perfectly; I originally got the idea from Gourment, but have adjusted it to my liking:

Strawberry Lassi
1/2 pound strawberries (cleaned and trimmed and sliced in half)
1/4 cup honey (adjust too your liking)
a pinch of ground cardamom
1 cup of yogurt

Put strawberries, honey, and cardamom in blender and puree until smooth. Then add yogurt and blend, until well blended. Serve and enjoy.

Back to the cooking....Rhubarb!

Yes, I am a happy cow, but then again you would be too if your grandmother gave you 1 1/2 pounds homegrown organic rhubarb. Rhubarb has to be one of the most incredibly uniquely flavored and scented vegetables out there, the scent is of grass, strawberries, and tomatoes. The flavor as if a green apple and strawberry had been mixed together. So to celebrate it in it's incredible glory I took Gourmet's 2006 Rhubarb Compote recipe and tweaked it into making it my own.

Rhubarb Compote

1 1/2 pounds Rhubarb (about 4 cups chopped into 1/2 inch pieces)

1 cup of suger

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Combine all the ingredients in a medium, heavy based saucepan, over medium and stir until suger dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cover, and cook for about 7 minutes. Let mixture cool and then chill (I had a hard time doing this) and serve with something wonderfully creamy (I did mine with Greek yogurt, but I suspect this may one of those perfect ice cream toppings). By the way you will be tempted to eat spoonfuls of this and I did and I don't regret it.

What I've cooked lately: Coconut Slab

Alright, I've been gone for awhile especially on the cooking part of my blog, but I've had good reason basically since last tuesday I have not been feeling very good, and have been reduced to a diet of very bland foods because of it, and yes it was hell for a food head like me. But before I got sick I made Nigella Lawson's wonderful Coconut Slab which can be found in this book Forever Summer for my friend Liz's barbecue, well over all it was a hit, but I do have one problem with the recipe it has to do with the frosting, I liked how the cake looked with the frosting going over the sides, so don't if you make this recipe add more suger to the frosting, it looks absolutely perfect with the frosting going over the sides. And also for a very simple, comforting, and bizarrely extravegent drink (I've been on a saffron kick lately):

Saffron Milk
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
a pinch of saffron

Directions: bring all of these things to a boil and serve. Very good before going to bed.

Kir..my new favorite cocktail!

I'm not notorious for being an extreme cocktail maker but this is officially my new favorite thing (I also love Lemon Drops and Margeritas) and it is absolutely simple...it is called Kir. Kir is a French cocktail (most often an served as an apertif), that uses a dry white wine and a creme de cassis liqueur. Depending on how sweet you like it use a teaspoon of cassis or more. I'm going to admit now though I didn't have any creme de cassis liqueur but instead used my framboise liqueur, did some research and this isn't that uncommon either, the drink was delicious. From what I can tell the usual measurements for this are 1/5 creme de cassis to 4/5 dry white wine. I used up my bottle of Pinto Grigio but the most often recommended wine for this Sauvingnon Blanc, but it must be a dry white wine. Many variations were made with other fruit liqueurs. When you use champagne it is called a Kir Royale.

The Great Experiment

This was inspired from Curiosity Killed The Cook's cooking a recipe from every country, instead though I am everyday going to try and celebrate the national food holiday (in finding these holidays out I believe every single month has a chocolate day). I began this experiment last Saturday with milk chocolate with almonds day, didn't get to do Sunday's Sugar Cookie celebration, very much felt the effects of Monday's Pina Colada day (by the way shout to Liz for providing the Pina Colada's and the many maraschino cherries that went into it), and yesterday cooked up a dozen Blueberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry muffins in honor of Blueberry Muffin day:

Berrific Muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup fresh or frozen berries , rinsed and drained

Preheat oven to 4oo
Grease muffin pan (regular size, recipe makes a dozen)
1. Sift first four ingredients into a bowl and mix together
2. next in seperate bowl combine egg, milk, and vanilla
3. next combine wet and dry ingredients until just blended
4. add the oil and stir until just blended
5. fold berries in and spoon batter into muffin cups, Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Jubilence Soup

Jubilence Soup
aka Nigella Lawson's Happiness Soup's even brighter sister

Ingredients:
18 ounces yellow squash (around two squash) diced
4 cloves of garlic sliced
1 boneless skinless chicken breast chopped
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon Madras Tamarind Hot Curry powder
a dash of cayenne (optional)
zest and juice of one small lemon
1/2 cup basmati rice
1/4 cup red lentils
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
4 cups chicken stock

Directions
1. dice squash and slice garlic
2. Sautee squash and garlic in olive oil for about 2 minutes, add chicken and lemon zest and sautee another 3 minutes, until squash is tender
3. Add stock, lemon juice, curry powder, tumeric, lentils, rice, and dash of cayenne.
4. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes until rice and lentils are tender, make sure to stir so lentils do not burn on bottom.
5. serve.

And a nice creamy topping:

Ingredients:
a quarter of a cucumber, finely diced
a dash of salt and pepper
1/4 a teaspoon toasted cumin seeds
3 tablespoons yogurt
2 teaspoons mint chopped (or go by your taste on mint)

Directions
1. mix all together and a dollop on soup
2. enjoy.

This was absolutely delicious and will be made again. so very yummy.

Catoun

Well I was out with a friend today and I had suddenly a craving for the french provencal eggplant dip catoun (strangely enough I can find nothing on google for it). I had made it about five years ago based on recipe on the back of Vincent Van Gogh card that suggested provencal picnic foods ( I am now kicking myself for having used all the cards up). I served it at very fun tea party and I really liked it and in general had an agreement amongst guests that is was pretty good. Still I have made it since till today. Well I found the recipe card I had made for it and found in my usual over egotistical reliance on my memory/laziness that I had left out a lot of details still the recipe came out well so here it is:

Catoun

small eggplant

fresh garlic

olive oil

italian parsley

salt and pepper

-Roast eggplant over fire or in oven until charred and wrinkled (I pierced mine a few times with a fork).

-Peel eggplant and place pulp in bowl (I placed mine in the food processor).

-Mix with garlic*, parsley**, and olive oil*** (I food processed mine to creamy smooth consistancy)

-Add salt and pepper to taste

Put it in serving bowl, drizzled it with more olive oil, another grind of pepper, and a sprinkle of salt. I then dunked in toasted Kalamata olive bread. I am right day dreaming of it slathered on a pita bread with hummus, roasted bell peppers, and cucumbers.

*I used two cloves roughly chopped; next time just one clove

**I used a handful of parsley which probabley equals 1/4 cup

***I drizzled in the olive oil to my desired consistancy.

Watermelon

After yesterday's visit to the Livermore Wine and Honey Festival I had a craving for watermelon and to be up front about it watermelon is my favorite melon*. Now plain watermelon is wonderful by its self, but I have a very simple way of making watermelon the epitome of hot summer eating.

Recipe:
Take slice of water melon
squeeze a lemon or lime over it
sprinkle a little salt on it (well how ever much you like
Next get some good chile powder and sprinkle over it ( I like to do mixes some time and add a little cayenne or chipotle powder) or if you want get some good hot sauce Valentina or Cholula are excellent for this. Now eat.

*There is nothing quite like the wonderful sweet crunch of a watermelon out of the fridge and the refreshing sweet taste.
*In Sicily it is common to sprinkle watermelon with fennel seeds and salt
*Yes this variation on watermelon is directly stolen from my Mexican boyfriend which is then stolen from the great street food snack of jicama, cucumber, and watermelon sliced put into cups then sprinkled with salt and chile powder and then a squeeze of lime.

So the question is how do you like your watermelon?

And for own psychadelic amusement watch the video watermelonlove
Watermelon Love
Incredibly bizarre and erotic.