September Projects

September is almost over and I don't even know how that happened. It's not been Miles' best month, to put it mildly, he's been a bit of a tyrant through his cold, growing pains, and teething. There are some clues left behind from the rubble of Hurricane Little -- piles of clothes soiled with snot and drool, chewed up books, miscellaneous kitchen gadgets in various states of disrepair, and some dried up raisins and frittata ground into the carpet. Somehow in the chaos, I managed to start a couple of cooking and sewing projects on the weekend and in between naps, work, and fluctuating nanny schedules. 


My first project involved breaking out my Bread Baker's Apprentice book and doing two things that I've been meaning to try for a while: pizza dough and sourdough bread. The pizza dough was a success. I made six dough crusts and froze them for later use. The other night we decided to give them a try and they were wonderfully delicate and stretchy and when coupled with my baking stone, we made pizza that rivals our favorite pizzeria. Dough win.

The sourdough has been more of a challenge. I embarked on making my own starter over a week ago and still have yet to make a sourdough loaf. I feel like I've spent more quality time with the seed and barm than I have with my own child. Maybe if Miles smelled like rye flour and pineapple juice, I'd love him more. The process is easy enough. It starts out with dark rye flour and some liquid (pineapple juice for the first two days) and goes something like this: mix, cover, ferment, uncover, mix, throw out half of your bubbly (stinky) concoction, mix, cover, ferment, mix some more, throw out some more, uncover (shielding your eyes from the fumes), refrigerate, wait wait wait, warm up, mix, cool off, rise, wait wait wait, flip yet another page to find a list of 12 more steps to go. I think you get the point. 

So here I started, with a weeks worth of variations on the starter in my Pyrex measuring cup, and am today, finally at the bread making step. I was so excited to have a fresh baked sourdough loaf on the table for dinner, but after reading through each step carefully, I realized that the bread won't be finished until about 9pm. Bummer. I should have started the process when I woke up this morning! Well, lesson learned for next time. And there will be a next time, because I have a bowl full of barm in the fridge that needs to be fed, rocked, and snuggled (I kid). J and I have made a pact to bake at least three batches before giving up, then I'll freeze the starter for later so I don't have to start the process again. 

The other project was making Miles a chair. I've been searching around for a mini upholstered chair for Miles to climb on and relax in, but they're either all terribly ugly or insanely expensive. So, I spent one evening on the internet and found a lady on Etsy who made a pattern for a plush kid's chair. I purchased the pattern on Tuesday and with great restraint, waited all the way until Saturday to get the supplies. J watched Little all afternoon while I went on an epic run to JoAnn's and Fabric Depot. Little took stock of the foam and batting and determined it was a worthy project. I had all of the pieces cut out by Saturday night and spent Sunday in my sweatshop pumping out the slipcover. The instructions were pretty good (not outstanding though) and I had to scratch my head and dig deep into my brain's sewing chest to figure out how to get it all put together. 

In the end I'm pretty happy with the results. Would I do it again? No. It was only slightly less expensive than just buying a stuffed chair from Pottery Barn, and was kind of a pain to sew. However, it looks adorable in our living room and Little loves it, so totally worth the mild annoyance. I have to go back and fix the arms (they need more stuffing) and I goofed when putting in the zipper, so there's a slight pucker on the right side (this may never get fixed though, since removing a zipper is high on my list of things never to do). I don't think Little will care though, because he now has his own piece of furniture to love and jump on. 

Sichuan Feast

Finally getting around to posting on my Sichuan feast from Mother's Day. After J and Little let me sleep in and presented me with flowers and breakfast treats, my only request was that we do a fun cooking project from a pretty cool cookbook that I checked out from the library (which is now almost overdue and I must renew, crap), Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking. Two things that I liked about this cookbook: it has a rather nice index in the front of cooking techniques, ingredients, and equipment to ensure success, and the recipes are all wonderfully simple (aside from the occasional hard to find ingredient).

One of our favorite Sichuan dishes is Dan Dan noodles (and the reason I checked out this book in the first place. We have a recipe from Cooks Illustrated that is good, but I always felt the recipe was pretty Americanized (like many of CI's Asian recipes). I read through Land of Plenty, educated myself on the staples of a Sichuan pantry, and made a rather detailed shopping list. We drove out to 82nd Avenue to Fubonn market to pick up the necessary ingredients. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, the "facing-heaven" dried chiles that are a staple in Sichuan dishes were nowhere to be found (a post-market internet search revealed that some import issues make them all but scarce in the US). We subbed dried chiles that we could find at the store and I think it turned out alright. Among the other staples that we purchased, rice vinegar, dark soy sauce, black vinegar, Shaohshing rice cooking wine, Sichuan peppercorns, preserved vegetables (mustard tubers), and sesame paste. Oh and I shouldn't forget the fresh noodles. Yum!

The first step was to make a chile oil with the crushed, dried chiles by getting the oil hot in a wok, letting it cool to a certain temperature, and pouring it over the dried chiles. It made a ton of oil, but apparently it keeps for a very long time in a cool dark place. The next step was to toast and grind the Sichuan peppercorns. The pepper has a wild smell and lends a distinct taste to the dish -- sort of citrus and spice. After the peppercorns started smoking, we put them in the coffee grinder and then sifted to weed out any large pieces of debris. Much of the flavor doesn't actually come from the peppercorn, but from the husk, so when you look at it closely there's a lot of little sticks and flakes that would make for an unappealing texture in the dish. 

Finally, we got down to cooking. We fried about 1tsp. of the Sichuan pepper in 1T of peanut oil until hot and added the 2T preserved veggies until fragrant. We then added about 1/4lb of beef, some soy sauce until the beef turned brown and crispy. Then stirred up a sauce of Sichuan pepper, sesame paste, soy, chili oil, vinegar and cooking wine. We put the fresh noodles and the sauce in the hot wok and tossed it around until warm. The finished noodle dish was pretty amazing, unlike anything I've ever tasted, and really quite easy. Garnished with some scallions, it was perfect. And my new camera captured the details perfectly -- I'm super excited about that too.

As a side dish, we stir fried veggies -- peas, bell pepper, carrots, tomato and cucumber. Next time we'll use significantly less oil than the recipe calls for on the veggies. They were swimming in it at the end. We added a little homemade chile oil on the noodles for some kick and washed it down with ice cold Sapporo. Couldn't have asked for better results with our first stab at authentic Sichuan cooking. I think next time, we'll tinker with the sauce just a bit, but otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing!

Busy Week

I've been a busy lady this week. We've had a guest in town since Friday, which meant that Thursday was spent tidying the apartment. I also cooked Jesse's birthday dinner and cake on what proved to be the hottest day of the summer yet. We had pesto pasta, fresh corn, and pan seared sausages. I think it was one of the best batches of pesto that I've made to date. Also, the overheated kitchen was totally worth the effort because the cake was delicious.

Usually, Jesse requests a carrot cake or something chocolate. However, due to the heat we had quite a few overripe bananas sitting around. So, he thought a banana cake with dark chocolate frosting sounded divine (and so did I). That is until I found a recipe for Banana Layer Cake with Caramel Cream and Salted Pecans. I broke the news that his cake would not contain chocolate this year and he took it rather well after I let him taste the banana caramel sauce for the whipped cream.

Each layer of cake is dotted with lime and rum and the caramel banana cream is spread on top. The caramel cream is out of this world! I made two 9-inch cakes and sliced them horizontally. I only assembled three layers of the cake, because there are only two of us. We cut the fourth layer into dessert-sized pieces for later use with fresh berries and stored them in the freezer. Even after downsizing the cake, there is way too much leftover. We've been snacking on it since Friday and aren't even half-way finished. Good thing that it keeps getting better with age! I'm thinking next time, I'll cut the recipe by half and make them into cupcakes. MMM.

This week is going to be another busy one. I start my class today, which kicks off approximately four weeks of intensive study on Monday through Thursday. I can't wait!

Don't Fear the Fennel

As we're nearing the end of J's week-long birthday fest, I decided to cook something new for dinner. The criteria was simple: anything not involving the oven. I had some fresh kale, a nice bulb of fennel along with random fresh herbs. I'm always amazed at how often Mark Bittman's blog for the New York Times syncs perfectly with my plans for weekday meals. His recent post on "More Vegetables, Less Egg" was truly an inspiration for the height of fresh vegetable season. Also, I'm pretty sure this ladybug crawled out of my greens bag from the farmers market. Good luck for me!

My frittata was more or less the filling from the Greek Mixed Green Pie that I made back in June -- a bulb of fennel sliced thin, 2 bunches of kale, a bunch of dill, a bunch of scallions, and 1/2 cup of feta cheese. I used three eggs, which in J's mind did not constitute a "frittata." He put on his skeptical face as he poked around the kitchen while the "frittata" was cooking, but agreed after the first bite that it was tasty -- as long as I didn't try to pass it off as an actual fritatta.

I have to admit, my relationship with fennel in the past has been a shaky one. When sliced fresh, the bulb closely resembles the smell of licorice -- one of those foods (can you call it a food?) for me that triggers an instant gag reflex. However, when browned with a little scallion and butter, it is a delectable treat. I have J's Mom to thank for fennel's second chance in my life. She makes delicious pasta with Italian sausage, fennel, (tomatoes?) and not much else. It is outstanding.

Anyway, the "frittata" was not the prettiest dish to photograph, but it certainly made up for its lack of appearance in taste. We paired it with fresh corn (on the cob for Jesse, cut off the cob for me) a few slices of sourdough bread, and a tasty Belgian beer, Scaldis. The feta melted and browned just a little to make a nice crust on the bottom, and the slight bite of the kale was balanced out by the sweet fennel and onions. Definitely a keeper! I'm actually quite excited to try the recipe again with an entirely new set of vegetables and herbs. Perhaps potatoes, bell pepper and thyme next time? The possibilities are endless.

My Best Dish Yet

This week has been pretty busy. With the cloud cover in Portland keeping the air nice and cool, I've been able to work on lots of projects and stepped back into the kitchen. Last night we were out late for a game night our friends' house in Sellwood. I forgot how fun Balderdash (or impromptu version) is and laughed harder than I have in quite a while. While playing games, we were treated to tasty homemade pizza and a giant cookie that blew my mind. The cookie dough reminded me a lot of the strawberry bars that we made for Jesse's office competition. Jesse's alarm went off at 7am and for some reason I was wide awake. As a result, I'm feeling like another cup of coffee might be in order to make it through the afternoon.

However, I'm excited to report that I experimented with another rice and chicken dish on Wednesday night. Ever since I received the America's Test Kitchen Best Recipes cookbook, I have tried to make a successful batch of their version of chicken, shrimp, and sausage jambalaya. After failing miserably the first three times, this was its last chance. The only reason that I kept going back for more was that the test kitchen managed to make a one-pot dish that had an insanely good flavor (most likely attributed to the addition of clam juice as part of the cooking stock) that permeated the chicken and rice. Given that the original version clearly had some rice to liquid ratio troubles, I decided to go rogue and alter the recipe entirely.

Using the knowledge I gained from my previous baked rice concoctions, along with Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen for inspiration, I managed to put together a hybrid jambalaya that was probably my best ever. This time I used brown rice and instead of cooking it on the stove, I covered the dutch oven and put it in the oven. This produced much better rice and meat results. The rice was almost perfection and the chicken fell right off the bone. I'm eating leftovers now for breakfast -- it's that' good. I picked up more fresh green beans at the farmers market and we whipped together another bean, corn, and tomato salad. It was the perfect crunchy side for the rich and savory rice. I posted the recipe online, should you care to try it yourself. Given my penchant for all things fresh and frugal, I think a quick shrimp stock would be just as tasty (or even more so) than the clam juice. (And yes, Brasilliant's Mom, you have to use the shrimp stock or clam juice. The flavor is subtle, but totally makes the dish.)

Today, I am off again to run errands and have a giant sewing project that I'm trying to finish before my class starts on July 20th. I feel a push to get a lot of things accomplished this week and next, because the end of July and all of August will be so busy that I'm afraid it will go entirely too quickly!

Oaxacan Feast

My dinner from Oaxaca (pronounced "wah-Haa-kah") was incredibly tasty and took quite a bit of time to prepare. I was somewhat disappointed with the result, because it was so darn ugly on the table. You'd think that spending over a day and a half prepping and cooking would lend somewhat more beautiful results. I initially thought of skipping this blog post entirely, but it would be a shame to not remember the flavors. All of the recipes, except for the dessert, came from Susana Trilling's Seasons of My Heart: A Culinary Journey Through Oaxaca, Mexico.

The main dish I chose, "Albondigas Estilo Ejutla," was beef and pork (my addition) meatballs seasoned with cumin, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, garlic, and cilantro (subbed instead of mint). While the meatballs themselves were incredibly tasty, the sauce was what made the meal. This dinner was the first time I had used several varieties of chilis and I was a little nervous about the overall heat as a result. The sauce was made with a combination of guajillo chilis that were seeded and re-hydrated, chipotles with adobo, a boat-load of fresh tomatillos, and tons of garlic. The heat was slight, but not overwhelming and the taste of the guajillos was readily apparent. I was so pleased with this sauce that I think it will be my new staple "red sauce" anytime I make Mexican or Tex-mex in the future.

The vegetable dish I chose was "Calabazas Horneadas," which is pretty much squash, corn, chilis, and cream baked with a bit of cheese on top. Given the abundance of fresh corn and fruit available in the markets, I thought it would be a good choice -- and it was. This dish was seasoned with fresh poblano chilis, onion, garlic, and salt and pepper. It was an amazingly simple side with really wonderful complex flavors. Again, the chilis were the star of the show and added a nice kick at the end. This one really should only be made in the summer when fresh corn is available, because it totally sent this dish over the top.

I also made cilantro rice, which was really meant to be a vehicle for soaking up the sauces, but turned out to be rather tasty on it's own. Next time, I'll probably just make plain rice so there's less competition for flavor on the table. I searched long and hard to find a Mexican dessert to go along with the meal, but in all honesty, they kind of all sounded gross. So, I opted for a blueberry tart instead. It certainly wasn't authentic, but it was a perfect end to the meal. It also provided a nice breakfast treat for the next two days.

So, there you have it. My ugly, yet tasty adventure in Oaxacan cooking.