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

bouillabaisse--the ultimate christmas eve freestyle

inspired by the italian (and other countries!) tradition of fishes for christmas eve, it seemed natural to throw it all in a pot of steamy warmth and flavor.  Turns out that in fact, given all the research i did, there is no 'official' bouillabaisse--it's freestyle heaven!!!

making fish broth--how pretty! secret ingredient fennel seeds.
amanda hesser and emeril say yes broth, not bittman tho

research!  grabbing some tips from multiple sources (including computer, not shown)

secret ingredient: orange zest!! mark bittman and emeril

olive oil, onions/leeks, tomatoes, cilantro, and orange zest!
and pinch of saffron, of course

add strained fish broth, and the longer cooking pieces--like lobster!!!

Add wine, and then other shellfish--i added mussels, scallops and shrimp,
then the fish at the end

superb meal, perfect perfect for a christmas eve.  

so delicious, but a bit harder to cook in small batches--leftover bouillabaisse, what could we make with that?  seafood smoothie?

leftover parsley....chimichurri!

the original concept of my culinary endeavors was to come up with a cookbook that would creatively use leftover ingredients in a way that i would actually eat them up--not a huge fan of leftovers.  I think the title of that project was 'prime'--as in with a prime ingredient that presents itself to you, what could you make ?(like 2 egg whites, half bunch of parsley about to die, or the remnants of a tequila bottle that is too small for a cocktail).

anyways!! chimichurri was the idea that came from the half bunch of parsley. hand minced with garlic, lemon wedge squeeze and olive oil--fancy in a flash

it went spectacular with the porkchop i had picked up at our new local market on my way home from work...

and even better mixed in with the roasted potatoes from the farmers market (actually 3 weeks old, and needing to be cooked themselves. Please note that i mixed in the chimichurri AFTER roasting the potatoes.

mole!

a quick photo essay to show some of the work that went into mole-making!  full disclosure: elizabeth and anne followed a recipe!!  this is truly an exceptional sauce, and it should be noted that it does not take as much time as we had feared--now that we've conquered the master recipe, i think we can freestyle it from here!

three different types of chiles....they all look the same

beautiful, fragrant and ready to be toasted

pumpkin seeds toasting, get ground up with almonds, cinnamon,  

chiles, after being shredded,  toasting

tomatillos toasting/browning

in pot with broth, tomatoes, simmer

blend to a smooth creamy texture in batches

and the chocolate!!! YUM.

Pita nachos

I shouldn't have been hungry. It was Sunday, and what was meant to be a brunch, between wine and strolling to neighborhood open houses, became a late afternoon meal of home made cheese enchiladas. And apple hand pies. And salad. That is a whole other post. But that is not what this is. This was a mere three hours later,(ok, two)- guests departed, a need to eat just a little something else. Thus, some pita chips from Trader Joes, cheddar cheese, scallions, jalapenos from a jar, broiled quickly with a side of hummus. I felt guilty, but it was really, really, good.

Hospital tray-shepherd's pie fantasy

Highly uninspiring hospital food, albeit artfully presented. If anyone needs the freestyle gourmet, it's a hospital! Sadly, my aunt who loved a gourmet meal is here...far from any culinary inspiration.

One grey lump is the purreed chicken, some mashed potatoes, and purreed green peas. Additionally on the tray is a 'slurried' biscuit, whatever that is. With the packets of sugar, salt, and pepper, what would you do?

If they supplied a little pastry shell, I suppose you could craft a Little sort of shepherd's pie...I'm sure I could find some white bread....but something crispier? Aha...deconstructed microwavable apple pie?....I'll go look...

Some inspiration is already happening...all hospitals should take up this charge!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/nyregion/new-milford-hospital-cafe-defies-stereotypes.html

http://www.plowtoplate.org/

egg-spiration with buttermilk

it was easy to think that a couple of eggs with tomatoes, cheese and herbs would be a good sunday morning pick me up...but then there was the buttermilk, sitting quite remote in the fridge....

why not?

a splash of buttermilk in the eggs, with the fixins, and a delicious and fluffy (i think the volume nearly doubled!) egg breakfast came out!

i will do this one again!!!

oven roasted all - in ratatouille

Fresh from Aicha's oven, minutes before they left for  france...she snapped this photo and emailed it in.

perhaps inspired by the advancing trip (memory waves of wafting warm air & herbs...?)

and with the need to clean out the fridge of veggies,

she created a masterpiece!!!

Freestyle on the road- Lentil soup, Greek style

I ordered lentil soup from Clark's a couple of weeks ago, and my dining companion implausibly ordered a gyro platter even though he doesnt like feta or tzatziki sauce. Bonus for me-I am always on the lookout for ways to add more fat to any dish- turns out that a dollop of that sauce and a sprinkling of feta into the soup made an already wonderful soup truly amazing.

Making it at home later, I added chopped scallions, a little fresh dill, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Never looking back!

Test of the mobile blogging station

Despite a great two weeks in Maine, with quite q few freestyle gourmet meals, (and a new contributor, welcome aicha) I did not take any photos of the experiments or the creations. Ok, I have to admit spending hours lovingly thumbing thru a 1942 joy of cooking book that remains in the cabin. It is the one place where I can actually follow a recipe...especially if the book has wartime chapters in 'clever substitutions and meal stretchers'

We'll see u next week!
To perfect the blog

Dont ask me how I managed to upload a photo upside down.....

freedom for lobsters! and then....lobster gold!

Elizabeth: I love to have little containers of great stuff in the freezer for improvisational cooking. I discovered lobster butter in Maine, where a chef I know used it to saute garlic and shrimp, adding a little white wine for the most amazing sauce. I have also used it in place of regular butter as a base for clam chowder and scallops au gratin

Anne:

a lobster feast is the best thing for a holiday weekend!

but then what to do with those pesky shells.....

doesn't anyone want just a fridge/freezer full of extravagant butters for those unexpected activities? lets make LOBSTER BUTTER!!!

First, dry out the shells in the oven....

then break up shells, and stir in with melted butter. Mash up the shells as you can, but we recommend that you do this prior to putting into melted butter. however, it looks prettier this way, and we've left it more whole!

how hard can it be, right? let the broken up shells cook in the butter for a bit, then strain, and cool before putting into fridge or freezer. Then you can pull out lobster butter at a moments notice to slather onto bruschetta, slather onto spaghetti, or just about anything else you use butter for, really.....

ginn fizz

for a weekend holiday event, with leftover egg whites, key lime juice and a need for a cocktail--we created the perfect summer gin fizz! frothy goodness!

watermelon salad--reconsidered

can you handle two posts in one weekend?!

i was inspired by this recipe after returning from the market, and thank goodness i had at least one ingredient on hand! the watermelon....!

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/24/dining/the-minimalist-grounds-for-marriage.html

ok, so i had scallions and grape tomatoes (not cherry!), and cilantro too. so i'll try this out, but including feta in place of blue cheese, balsamic vinegar in place of sherry, and i'm not super convinced by the cayenne....yet.

recipe independence movement has begun! key lime reconsidered!

inspired by key limes in the store, during a fourth of july weekend with ample time to cook, i embarked on a simple exercise in making a key lime pie.

I actually remembered to search the recipe in the grocery store, so that i didn't walk out without any necessary ingredients. Quick save, sweetened condensed milk! However, the same search made it seem like you could not make this without a graham cracker crust....this must be incorrect,there must be riffs out there that will work. Also, with fresh basil wafting thru the air, could i infuse the lime with some fragrance? Hmmm....remember i am not a professional.

further recipe research at home dug up very little in the way of alternative to the traditional....

it is the beginning of 'independence day,' and i will now create my own version!

First, i refuse the graham cracker crust, but would like to use something with a texture. I'll start with an almond-based pastry shell (similar in texture/process per MORO cookbook pastry tart, but with ground almonds). this is a double recipe simply because i can't tell with the 'g' how much this actually makes...and it seems miserly as written.

ultimately it's ground almonds, flour and powdered sugar (240g) with butter (150g) and egg yolks (2)--you will know when it seems like pastry dough. but it will probably work out anyways...they usually do.

(do you know the MORO cookbook? from the Moro Restaurant in London--my favorite restaurant i've never been to!)

http://www.moro.co.uk/moro/foodwine/cookbook.asp

grate chilled dough into pieplate (fill more than this, but you get the effect with this photo):

i pre bake basket weave crust in a hot oven for about 10 mins, prebake till just turning golden, then cool.

Full disclosure: i make the pastry dough by hand with a fork because i'm too lazy to get the cuisinart dirty (sorry jenni!), i am not afraid to put the fridge up higher to make the dough chill faster, and i only have a electric beater with one beaty-thing creating a bit of angst going into the next phase.

filling: (proportions gleaned from recipe surfing) : egg yolks (6), 1.5 cans sweetened condensed milk & key lime juice (6 oz liquid, approx a bag plus a few of little limes squeezed). beat it frothy starting with the eggs!

here's a fun discovery with the mono-beater--hold still and let the bowl spin!!!!

Am I bold enough to add basil to the filling??? sort of a Thai inspired idea...SURE, what harm can it do?

now to bake....15 mins (plus a bit on 350....)

and now...while it's cooling....

what to do with those egg whites...hmmmm. gin fizz anyone?