houtou miso-ful!

Start with the squash! Kombucha Squash--Japanese pumpkin

Squash Beautiful Squash

Making the Rice Dough for Dumplings; Shira-Tama!

Straining the miso in the Dashi broth--
after simmering with squash, carrots, fried tofu, and mushrooms

cooking the shira-tama, when floating they are done!

delicious soup is ready!

How to make the soup:

Make Dashi broth (instant, or Kombu + Bonito Flakes, strained), add kombucha squash, carrots till soft. Then add shitake mushrooms, and fried tofu pieces (prepared).  Add in strained miso (shiro) to taste ...a few tablespoons.  Make shira-tama rice dumplings (rice flour and water, fragile gluey paste rolled into a ball with thumbprint flattening), boil till they float, bathe in cold water, and then include into soup. Warm, cozy and tasty. Squash was velvety, shira tama like soft down pillows, and broth like liquid gold. Thanks Naoko!

A recipe even Anne could love

While searching last week for something to do with the leftover post-latkes sour cream in my fridge, I stumbled across this "Very tasty sauce from dried boletus mushrooms," from Elena Molokhovets' wonderful 19th century guide for young Russian housewives, Classic Russian Cooking:

• Wash 18-24 dried mushrooms and boil until almost cooked. Pour off the mushroom bouillon, which should be used the next day for borshch, sorrel shchi, or mushroom soup. Or, give the leftover bouillon to the servants...

Now, to get me some servants...

[Elena Molokhovets, Classic Russian Cooking, trans. Joyce Toomre (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1992), 197.]

new traditions new tamales on new years day!

the birth of gringas!  as much as there are many steps and time involved, there is nothing more freestyle than tamales!  although the first time always makes you nervous, i don't think there is much possibility of really making a mistake.   have filling, soak corn husks, make masa harina dough, fill, and steam. easy!

making some of the fillings--pork with onions, salsa verde

more fillings, leftover chicken to be mixed with mole (made in previous post)

soaking corn husks--at least 1 hr, hot water.

necessary accoutrements--bloody maria--makes the day more fun

more fillings, beans

adding broth to masa dry mixture
(2 c masa, salt, baking powder,  2 c broth  x 3)

whipping the lard (or shortening)
(2/3 c per batch)

mixing lard with masa mix

assembly area

first husk!

with filling!

not too hard to fold 

beautiful! double tie with corn husk.
hardest job to figure out how to distinguish the different fillings!

they are multiplying!

ready to steam

success, first round done!!!

steamy hot beautiful tamales (1.5 hr steaming good!)

taste and eat!

My first blog post. Be kind.

For the record, I can follow recipes. I'm rather attached, in an emotional sort of way, to recipes. Not because I can't "freestyle," but because I am more of a control freak and much more uptight than Anne. That said, my first post is about a relatively ad-libbed plat that I turned out last night, as part of a grand New Year's repast. A riff on coulibiac, served in individual portions. Part Julia (The French Chef), part Anya (von Bremzen, for those who don't know her, from Please to the Table), part some recipe on Epicurious, part my vast Russianist experience with mushrooms. It was yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Очень вкусная, was the word on the street. Or 'round the table. And it looked damn good, as well.
Dilled rice (seasoned up with some mushroom stock), two different kinds of wild mushrooms that I sautéed and cooked down with shallots, cognac, dry vermouth and salt and pepper, 5 oz. pieces of salmon (traditionally, you poach and cube the salmon in advance, but I left the pieces whole and raw before baking). Layers: rice, mushrooms, salmon, mushrooms, rice, all wrapped in puff pastry. (Dufours is unquestionably the best. No reason to make your own.) Baked and served with a dill sauce. Rich yet light at the same time. I would definitely make it again. But, of course, since there was no real recipe, I probably couldn't.
That's another reason I like recipes...

lemon zest--a new years pledge

no photos, unfortunately, but am inspired to find a 'discovery' in every cooking activity this year!  inspired by a jaimie oliver recipe (secret pleasure is his ipad app....), i made fettucine carbonara with sausage, and i added lemon zest to the egg/cream.  AMAZING, makes a huge difference and sets off nicely with the pancetta and sausage!  hooked.

freestyle cousin!

a great visit with my cousin gideon, who turns out to be another freestyle gourmet!!! gideon, and his wife, liz, are AMAZING cooks, and the best hosts i know. this is just a snapshot of their generosity and a glimpse of the italian heritage (grandmothers are sisters! )  that gideon and i share (funny but the grandmothers did not have the love of culinariness that i think gideon and i share)  !

Clams ready to go--fresh from long island sound!

gideon steaming the clams, and sweating  the garlic for accompanying greens

and the greens--escarole never tasted so good!

and now for a little pasta cooking water!!!

wine, clam juice and herbs, back to the shellfish!!

pasta in!!!

pasta, clams and linguine--a quick perfect meal before a ferrry!!!!

christmas day chilaquiles--play johnny cash while making

well i think holidays are for new traditions as well as old.  chilaquiles is made for christmas day, easy to make, but fun and not everyday.  another freestyle special, because you really can't make a mistake.  just bathe freshly fried tortilla chips in a salsa (i always prefer verde) and add cheese, eggs, chorizo or bacon, and get it in the broiler.  breakfast nachos!!!  i forgot to photo making the salsa verde, which i made the day before, but it includes tomatillos (cut up) simmered in a little broth, with serrano chiles.  nice hotness 2lb tomatillos to 8 serrano chiles.  Then blend with onion and garlic till smooth.  YUM.

frying the tortillas, use stale fresh corn ones, tear up and then fry in canola oil

ingredients, crumbled chorizo, queso fresco and
scrambled eggs with buttermilk and cilantro

perfection--after turning tortilla chips in salsa verde,
add ingredients on top, put in broiler and add mexican crema