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.