Pickled Peppers

Jake came home from the store last Monday with this grand idea, we'd make pickled vegetables to go with dinner! I'd done some pickled peppers in the past, so I already had a quick go to recipe. He cut up the vegetables and together we made it happen. The vegetables were green beans, leeks, a red bell pepper, two thai peppers, and some other cute little peppers that shall go unnamed, but I think they looked like cubanelles.

My recipe involves boiling equal parts vinegar (I used cider vinegar in this instance) and water with salt, a smidge of sugar,* whole peppercorns, whole coriander seeds, whole cumin seeds, about 4 smashed cloves of garlic, and um, that's about it for this time.  After it came to a boil** I poured it over the chopped vegetables, placed a plate on them to ensure they were submersed, and let them sit for at least twenty minutes.*** Then you drain off the liquid and voila! Pickled vegetables!

As tasty as they were unfortunately they were not perfect. Jake and I have differing views on how to put together a vegetable dish. He likes his vegetables chopped up into tiny pieces so they're all blended together, in this case he wanted a relish. I like my vegetables independent of one another, long and pretty. My spice blend clung to his tiny vegetables and it was impossible to separate the seeds from the real food and it made each bite a little unpleasant. I managed to suffer through it for the deliciousness. Jake not so much. Next time we'll communicate better and make sure there is more harmony. In this case, the dish was Jake's vision, so I should have thought about the end result and placed the seeds in one of my sachets that I have just for that purpose.**** However if the dish had been my vision and Jake was merely my sous chef, he'd have had to either done it my way or at least talked about it. Anyway, here's the picture. It's not super awesome. You can see the residue left on the vegetables.

*I managed to put the perfect amount of sugar in it, 1/4 cup for 4 cups of liquid. Most pickling recipes, especially the quick ones, call for a lot more sugar but we didn't feel the flavors would work together if it was too sweet.

**We happen to have the perfect "pot" for this boil. I knew it would require stirring and close monitoring but I wanted to minimize evaporation.

***It was probably closer to 40 but I meant to do 20!

****I have reusuable cheesecloth sachets, paper sachets, a metal tea thingy, and actual cheesecloth! Lots of ways that I could have solved it had I just thought about it.

Home Made Ravioli

Super awesome homemade pasta.

Amish Sausage, homemade pasta, butter brandy sage sauce.

Food from July

A close up on a variation of one of my more awesome and regular pasta dishes. 

It's ordinary box pasta, I know, I don't love that idea either, and you can totally taste the difference. Anyway, I made a bechemal sauce, sort of. Made out of some beef stock and onions. It's topped with chicken made a few days earlier on the grill which added a fantabulous smokey flavor. Add some chopped scallions and fresh basil for a basic dish that's scrumptious down to the last bite!

**

Spaghetti Squash!

This dish is totally inspired from watching an episode of Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. While I can't say I love that show there is the occasional piece of awesome. 

Here I cut a spaghetti squash in half and dropped it in boiling water for fifteen minutes. While that was bubbling away I cooked up some sausage in a pan (Jimmy Dean hot for this particular dish, fancy I know) Opened a can of crushed tomatoes, added garlic, onions, diced carrots and spices to simmer. After pulling the squash out I let it cool just enough to touch them spooned out the "spaghetti" and added it to the sausage, stirred in some of my quicky sauce then refilled the squash shell. I placed a few slices of mozzarella on top then placed it in the over to bake at 375 for half an hour. Meanwhile I let the sauce continue simmering and when it was all done, spooned out the sauce, sprinkled a little cheese and added a little fresh basil to create what you see above. 

**

Jake made some braised ribs in scotch. Precious precious scotch. Luckily it tasted fairly amazing, but he'd have to try and remember to tell you himself.  The perfect complement was my cole slaw of deliciouso. Jake doesn't like me calling it cole slaw because he feels that the only thing it has in common with cole slaw is the cabbage. Ingredients include tons of fresh cilantro, fresh squeezed lime juice, cumin, sesame oil, grapeseed oil, soy sauce, garlic, and chiles. Mmmm. I've made this a few times and the specifics can vary but it's perfect every single time.

Also, braised ribs.

**

Flank steak rubbed in spices of a Mexican flavor and sit in that for an hour, served on flour tortillas with my black beans, cheese, sour cream, sauteed onions, and cheese. One day I'll talk about my black beans, but they're not your ordinary beans.

**

Jake made this steak. I took the picture. I liked the picture more than Jake liked the steak. I thought the steak was fine.

With the steak, (which was grilled) we had the above vegetables, also grilled. While also not great, they too took a great picture.

**

Best. Hamburgers. I've. Ever. Made. Fresh chuck from the Amish, not sure if that's what made the difference or if I was starving or if I just finally have figured out how to make hamburgers. First we made the bacon, then grilled the burgers in the bacon grease, then once one was done grilled the bread (slices from Panera's asiago loaf) and onions. I added dijon mustard to mine and the only thing that would have made it better would have been some vine ripened tomato slices. 

**

Amish Pierogies with basil.

I don't remember what else he did to them. But I do remember they were good. Hard to believe it was only a week ago.

**

Omelette!

Eggs were light and fluffy, cooked on low in a hot pan in butter, filled with feta and fresh basil.

Three out of the last four dinners

I wanted to share a few of the meals we've eaten this week!

First up, boneless rib eye with broccoli rabe and onions

It's not obvious from the photo, but the rabe was amazing. The steak was fantastic, but we eat fantastic steak all the time, the rabe though? I made magic. I started with a spoonful of bacon grease, then after it was hot put in the rabe covered the top with shallot salt and let it melt. After tasting the rabe I realized it was far too bitter to be truly enjoyable. I added some basil but still wasn't sure, I wanted acid and I wanted sweet. I added basalmic vinegar and then sprinkled sugar over it then let that cook on low for another five minutes. I realized then I wanted the sauce I was creating to bind to the leaves since otherwise it wouldn't really meld flavors so I added some cornstarch, stirred it all up and turned the heat off and let it sit for ten minutes.

I can't describe how perfect it was.

Last night I meant to just make foccacia but then there was pizza at work and it accidentally became a pizza, or two ... or three. I made one.

Sunday night we had a fresh cut of swordfish and artichokes. 

Jake made a crazy limey dill butter sauce to go with. It was delicious, if a little acidic, but the acidity did pair well with the artichokes. I ate every bit on my plates.

"Spaghetti and Meatballs"

I confess, I get a lot of inspiration from Russell James. He makes raw recipes seem easy and the photography is so beautiful how can I not want to make something! (I don't watch the instructional videos, but as I type this I wonder how much more I could learn.)

So everything here is inspired by him, except I cheated and used feta cheese.

The spaghetti was the easiest thing in the world. It's simply zucchini! I remembered that we had a mandolin and that it should have blades allowing thin ribbon slices. And guess what! It totally did! I was psyched. Making the zucchini was a piece of cake. Actually easier than whatever that phrase is supposed to mean. (Maybe I should think more highly of cake)

The day before however I made the "meatballs". I combined shelled almonds, flax meal, an onion, a splash of water, nutritional yeast, fresh parsley, basil, oregano, lemon juice in the blender, formed them into balls, and placed them in the dehydrator. I was definitely worried since it was a much lighter color than I wanted it to be but after spending the night in the dehydrator they'd darkened.

The tomato sauce is pretty easy, tomatoes both fresh and dried, garlic, olive oil (I used the super good stuff) fresh basil in the food processor.

More leftover pictures

Potato salad the way it's meant to be. Parboiled baby red potatoes, with feta, lemon juice, fresh dill, and spring onions. 

Pork chops seared in butter with apples and sage

Garden fresh pepper (literally picked in our back yard) stuffed with turkey sausage and served with seared brussel sprouts and leeks.

Mini burgers served with sauteed squash and onions.

A bone in kobe rib eye was first soaked in red wine and salt then seared over high heat to capture a full Maillard browning. The rib eye is accompanied with farm fresh green beans tossed with onions, peppers, garlic, and spices.

Capon chicken roasted with vegetables. Adorable!

Older Pictures

"Macaroni and Cheese" Quinoa pasta with a  bechemal sauce made with sauteed onions, jalepenos, and a monteray Jack. Served with apple chicken sausage and blanched broccoli.

 Fresh swordfish lightly salted and seared in olive oil before being finished with a soy garlic lime sauce and topped with delicate pieces of roasted parsley and ginger. Accompanying the fish is red grain rice over spinach that has been wilted in a chardonnay garlic steam and a small side of crisped parsnips.

Homemade bagels surrounding an apple crisp treat.

the homemade onion bagel served with cream cheese, red onion, and capers

"Linguine" tossed in a cheese sauce and fresh basil then topped with garden fresh tomatoes and served with a swirl of red pepper sauce. The linguine is made out of thinly sliced parsnips and carrots, the cheese is a blend of macadamias, cashews, and lemon juice. 

Close up and personal with brussel sprouts on the stalk.

What is this? A gorgous autumn carnival squash?

Open it and you reveal a butternut squash soup!

mmm, soup. Topped with some smoked paprika and cilantro.

What to say? One pot meals are the best! The beef was seared then placed  on the bed of vegetables and it was all put in the oven at 200 degrees for an hour.

Szechuan Fish still in the pan. Red snapper cooked whole, skin bones and all.

The snapper served with chinese broccoli and toasted sesame seeds.

Chicken stuffed with bacon, herbs, onions, cream cheese, seared, baked and served with peas.

Beef with onions served with a tomatillo roasted pepper sauce. Accompanied with saffron rice, and Chinese broccoli.

Baby red potoates are boiled before being roasted with Amish butter and paprika. Peppery kale is gently sauteed with onions and Mexibell peppers then baked in the oven with eggs cracked on top to give you the perfect six minute egg. To finish the dish some freshly grated parmesan and two pieces of bacon.

Butternut Squash soup, siracha, and cilantro.

It's a rainbow! If you use your imagination. Steak served over a blueberry sauce and a medly of vegetables. 

Turnips braised in milk and butter served with bacon.

Tacos! Slow cooked red beans simmered with onions, ancho chiles, cubanelles, and cider served over some crispy corn tortillas. The dish is finished with a "sour cream" composed of blended cashews and lemon juice. The dish is dressed with a splash of lemon juice, diced red peppers, and cilantro.

Seasoned tofu served with mustard greens and red rice.

 Pasta tossed with a light cream sauce, sauteed spinach in white wine and garlic, with some homemade turkey meatballs and some diced tomatoes. All of this is finished with some cracked red pepper. 

Bean cake with cheddar cheese, served over a bed of fresh red cabbage, topped with a salsa verde and served with fresh cornbread.

Proscuitto and fresh herb fritatta. 

Grilling extravaganza! Okra, chicken and corn oh my!

fish, rice, chive flowers, green sauce. Yes I can't remember, this is why I need to post more often.

Triple layered parfait! The bottom layer is an iced cream flavored with Baileys, the middle is chocolate, the top has orange zest and grated chocolate. The entire dish is topped with zested orange.

Seared scallops on a bed on creamed corn and topped with a light pepper relish. The corn is simmered in chicken stock and lime zest before being finished with a dallop of creme fraiche. The scallops were cooked olive oil before being basted with butter and coriander. A touch of fresh cilantro and cracked pepper completes the meal.