Simply Me

To be honest I’ve only had risotto a couple of times in a restaraunt, so I only have a vague idea of how the results taste and feel when they are properly cooked, but this is how I get to what I consider to be a yummy risotto.

1 1/2 handfuls (per person) of a short grain rice  (calrose will work in a pinch though)
white wine
half and half
butter
handful (per person) of baby spinach
tablespoon (per person) minced onion
olive oil
salt
pepper

Boil a pot of water and add spinach.
In a frying pan saute onion and rice  in olive oil on high for about 3 minutes.
ladle some of the spinach cooking water over rice (enough that the rice is soupy but not so much that the rice is floating)
stir until all the liquid is completely absorbed
Keep adding the water and stirring until the rice isn’t crunchy anymore, but not soft.
Remove spinach from water and chop, add to rice along with the sliced mushrooms.
Alternate stirring in ladle fulls the cooking water, half and half and white wine.
The risotto is done when the texture is similar to al dente pasta (soft but with a little bit of texture, not crunchy at all but also not smushy) there should be enough liquid in the rice for it to slide around the pan on its own, but not so thick that it’s a solid sticky mess
season with salt and pepper
finish with a good parmasean.

Enjoy pipping hot.

I’m always on the look out for simple (read easy) recipes that are delicious. Of course for me there are also other deciding factors in whether or not I’ll try a recipe…for one I really really prefer to cook from scratch and 2 I really really don’t like a lot of ingredients, it’s too darn expensive when there’s a lot of ingredients. As part of my economizing this month I’ve decided to try a new approach…focusing on one cuisine in a shopping period. This week is Italian. So I broke out my wiliams sonoma italian essentials cook book and found Pork loin braised in milk. Pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. Here is my adaptation (read non measured thrown together version) of this unkown (in america) classic.

2 lbs of  pork shoulder (tried it with pork loin, but american pork is just to lean and it turns out too dry, but the shoulder is succulent cooked this way)
3 tbsp of butter
2 cups of whole milk
salt
pepper

melt butter
season meat with salt and pepper
with heat on med. high add meat
brown meat on all sides slowly, taking care not to burn the butter
deglaze pan with milk
when the milk begins to boil reduce heat to low and simmer for 1-3 hours (depending on cut of meat) until the meat is fork tender.
remove the meat and boil the sauce for 5 minutes until nut brown and remove from heat.
skim fat from top
Puree with immersion blender (or regular blender) and serve over sliced meat.

Serve with mushroom spinach risotto…mhmmm

I went to lunch with my friends Tina & Jaclyn, and since Tina and I are sushi buddies we went to Hiro’s in Petaluma, an amazing sushi restaurant. After lunch we walked across the street and found a little candy shop that had some crazy good caramels. It was there that I was introduced into the wonderful world of salted caramels. In this sad little county in which I live there is no where to get these so I’ve been deprived through 8 months of pregnancy cravings, until today. I spent days googeling looking for a caramel recipe that did not use corn syrup…I found 1, From chez Pim.  I then preceded to walk into my kitchen and sans candy thermometer I made my very first batch of carmels.  OH MY GOD.  I wanted to call everybody I know and exclaim to the world how yummy these were.  I’m beside myself with glee and I can’t stop running to the kitchen to nibble on them.  Enough gushing…and back to the cooking.

(more…)

this sauce is divine.  I use it for creamy scallop nigiri and BBQ hotate nigiri and I’m planning on using it on grilled albacore.

1/2 cup mayonaise (japanese mayo is best but a delicate flavored one such as from trader joes will work)
*2 tbsp siracha sauce (more or less to taste…so you can controll the spiciness)
1/4 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil

*you can also substitute a combination of franks red hot sauce and sweet chili oil or sauce.

pasta noodles (cooked)

1 pound whole raw prawns
Quart of whipping cream
2 tbsp. minced white onion
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1/2 cup of white wine

Saute onion until soft, deglaze pan with half of wine. Pour cream into pan and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add prawns, rest of the wine, garlic and salt and pepper to taste.  Remove prawns and simmer noodles in sauce for  3 minutes.    Remove noodles and add parmasean cheese to sauce and let sit for 2 minutes, ladle sauce over noodles.

My first real job was working in the same real estate office as my mom, awkward at times, but it had some perks.  Lunch was one of them.  We’d often go to this Mexican restaurant and I ALWAYS ordered the same thing.  A chicken chimichanga.  I’ve never been able to find another to compare, and since that’s the only thing I like from that restaurant and that restaurant is 250 miles away, I had to come up with my own recipe.   The most important thing for me is large amounts of jack cheese.  YUM that’s my favorite part lots of cheese.  Unfortunately there is one hard to find ingredient…GIANT 13 inch flour tortillas.  I get mine from Winco, they also make great salad wraps that I send my husband to work with. (more…)

Tuesday:
Applesauce Salmon, roasted Asparagus, and tomato basil bisque
-well my origional plan was to make the tomato bisque, but the safeway select brand was on sale when I was grocery shopping so I cheated…Unfortunately I still haven’t perfected cooking fish in my stainless steel pans so it stuck pretty badly.  I think part of the problem is the pans I have, have rather steep sides so Im not able to get underneath my fish without damaging it

(more…)

8 Cups of chicken stock
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
4 tbsp. olive oil
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 bottle of strained tomato
1 cup of sour cream
1 1/2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp. of crushed garlic
10 chopped basil leaves
salt
Pepper

saute carrots, celery, onion, in olive oil until soft. Deglaze pan with stock and add tomato and marinara simmer until desired thickness.  Using a stick blender or a regular blender puree 1/2 the soup and return to the pot.  Add sour cream, basil, garlic and vinegar.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

serve with parmasean cheese and freshly chopped basil leaves

Most of the time when I’m cooking I try and avoid too many fats, but every once in awhile you have to have something naughty…The first time I made this the hubby went back for seconds.  Everytime he asks me to make he asks for more and more bacon to be added.  I usually end up adding an entire package now and it still isn’t enough…he likes his extra bad for you. 

1 pckg. of elbow noodles
2 cups each of shredded cheddar, fontina & smoked Gouda
8-12 slices of bacon chopped
flour
Milk
Potato chips, thicker is better (I use kettle chips)

Boil noodles until just before the al dente stage.  Fry bacon pieces until crispy and drain, reserving 2 tbsp. of drippings.  Add flour to drippings until it makes a soft paste (roux), do not add so much flour that the paste forms a ball or clumps.  Add 1 cup of milk to your roux and stir until creamy.  Add fontina and gouda and half of the cheddar, stir until melted.  Laddel a little of the sauce into the bottom of the baking dish, mix remaing sauce and noodles together and pour into the baking dish.  Top with the remaing cheddar the bacon bits and crumble the potato chips on top.  Bake at 350 degrees for at least 30 min.  Baking time will vary depending on the dimensions of your baking dish.  Enjoy!

Growing up I was always a weird kid…I loved my veggies.  Then again maybe I wasn’t so weird.  My family is full of great cooks and I grew up eating veggies from grandma’s garden that were well cooked.  This simple way of cooking zucchini or really any squash is so simple that it’s often overlooked. 

Ingredients:
Zucchini sliced thinly
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a stainless steel pan over medium high heat.  Add zucchini, and flip when lightly browned.  Season with salt and peper and remove when the zuchini are a little firmer than al dente pasta.