It's still July. Thank goodness. I'm sneaking in my second AFBA-mandated post in at the last minute, but this is super tasty.
Basil simple syrup
1.5+/-0.5 c basil, loosely packed
1 c water
1 c sugar
In a small pot, combine all ingredients and bring them it a boil. Allow to maintain a rolling boil from a minute and then remove from the heat. Cover with something that lets it breathe, but won't let in the flies (I used my splatter guard). Steep for at least 30 minutes and more if you like a more intense basil flavor (I think I left mine in for a couple hours while I ran some errands). Strain and refrigerate
Basil limeade
2 T basil simple syrup
2 T freshly squeezed lime juice
6 oz water
Mix. Enjoy. You can play around with the ratios, but I've found that equal lime juice and basil simple syrup is the best. I really enjoyed using sparkling water too, but this is probably only a reflection of my affinity for pop.
So yeah. Where have I been all month? I've had some health problems take over my life. It's not super serious, but I've been doing all I can to avoid sinus surgery. It's been quite exhausting and painful to deal with, which is why I haven't been posting so much (or showing up to anything).
Showing posts with label basil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basil. Show all posts
31 July 2011
15 June 2010
tomato basil soup
I've been fighting with horrible data ever since I passed my defense. I often complain about the general quality of the data that I work with in my project, but right now I'm dealing with the "problem" stars and they are quite problematic. Instead of chucking my laptop across the room in frustration, I've found that cooking helps quite a bit. Today I made tomato basil soup because a) it's delicious b) Colby likes it and c) I bought a thermos for it specifically so I could take it to a picnic with me tomorrow.
Tomato basil soup:
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 sweet onion, diced (I used a Texas 1015, which is by far my favorite onion)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 28 oz cans of tomatoes (I used San Marzanos, but anything works here)
15 oz chicken stock
1/2 c heavy cream
3 T butter
2 T tomato paste
lots of basil, chopped (I used about 2.5 c, loosely packed)
salt+pepper to taste
Heat the evoo in a large pot. Once hot, add in the onions and a good pinch of salt and cook until softened and a bit brown about 5-10 minutes. Add in garlic and stir until fragrant, ~30s or so. Add in chicken stock and tomatoes and stick blender until mostly smooth...ish. Bring to a boil. Bring to medium heat and add butter, cream, tomato paste, and basil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread.
Tomato basil soup:
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 sweet onion, diced (I used a Texas 1015, which is by far my favorite onion)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 28 oz cans of tomatoes (I used San Marzanos, but anything works here)
15 oz chicken stock
1/2 c heavy cream
3 T butter
2 T tomato paste
lots of basil, chopped (I used about 2.5 c, loosely packed)
salt+pepper to taste
Heat the evoo in a large pot. Once hot, add in the onions and a good pinch of salt and cook until softened and a bit brown about 5-10 minutes. Add in garlic and stir until fragrant, ~30s or so. Add in chicken stock and tomatoes and stick blender until mostly smooth...ish. Bring to a boil. Bring to medium heat and add butter, cream, tomato paste, and basil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread.
09 November 2009
New Kitchen
We finally unpacked the kitchen enough such that I could actually find enough bowls, pots, and pans to cook a meal. Granted, the entire house is still in boxes and bags, but there's a ton of space in the kitchen so I settled on my new go to meal: pasta with garlic, artichokes, and sundried tomatoes. I served it with a salad made with spring mix, crimini mushrooms, getost cheese, and croutons with a bottled dressing (shameful, I know!).
garlic pasta toss
1 lb spaghetti, cooked to al dente
reserved pasta water
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
6 oz jarred artichoke hearts, quartered
1 T dried basil
salt+pepper
parmasean cheese
heat EVOO in a crazy large pan (or stock pot if you don't have one). add in garlic and stir for 30 or until fragrant. add in artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes and stir to heat. add pasta and basil and toss to combine. If it's too thick, add in the reserved pasta water to thin. season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated parm.
p.s. if you've never had getost, you should really try it. it's pretty awesome and it goes well with fruit.
garlic pasta toss
1 lb spaghetti, cooked to al dente
reserved pasta water
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
6 oz jarred artichoke hearts, quartered
1 T dried basil
salt+pepper
parmasean cheese
heat EVOO in a crazy large pan (or stock pot if you don't have one). add in garlic and stir for 30 or until fragrant. add in artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes and stir to heat. add pasta and basil and toss to combine. If it's too thick, add in the reserved pasta water to thin. season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated parm.
p.s. if you've never had getost, you should really try it. it's pretty awesome and it goes well with fruit.
25 July 2009
Easy Shrimp Pasta
I've spent most of this summer working from home, which means that I get to dictate my own hours. At first, it starts out by me getting up at 10 and going to bed at 2 or 3, but then it evolves into the get-up-at-4PM-go-to-bed-at-8AM. This leads to three things:
1) I am out of sync with the rest of Central Time
a) incidentally, that means I'm in perfect sync with Chris, who's in Hawaii.
2) Colby doesn't get nearly as much sleep as he's used to
3) I watch a lot of late night television, with laptop enlapped.
Late night tele usually involves police procedurals (oh Bobby Goren, you are, by far, my *favorite*) and whatever's on Food Network that doesn't involve Paula Deen, Mark Summers, or Bobby Flay. This leads to an enhancement in Alton Brown in my TV diet and lately he's talked a lot about crustaceans and how they're very closely related to roaches in the animal kingdom. This hasn't really helped my appreciation for lobster as I found one of their animal kingdom cousins wandering around my bathroom (which involved quite a bit of screaming and frantic searches for things to throw); however, I am able to ignore the roach-shrimp dichotomy in my head because phobias are nothing, if not irrational, which had left me craving shrimp.
Rewind to a week ago, and I found myself at the downtown farmers market with basil, brussels sprouts, pan sausage, and okra. Basil presented a myriad of possibilities, so I decided to make a cheesy tomato sauce with shrimp and linguine for dinner (in part, because I always wondered what canned tomato sauce actually was.). Nom. Nom. Nom.
1/2 c ricotta cheese
1/3 c grated parmasean cheese
1/4 c basil, chiffonade
8 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 14.5 oz can tomato sauce (note: this is what I used... in the future, I'm using crushed tomatoes)
1 lb frozen shrimp, thawed in water and boiled for 3ish minutes, then shelled
1 lb linguine, boiled in heavily salted water
s+p to taste
combine ricotta, parm, basil and about 1/3 of the garlic and add salt+pepper to taste. The parm is salty enough, so it probably won't need a lot of salt and the pepper depends on your tolerance for heat. set aside. In a sauce pan, add olive oil and garlic and stir around until fragrant. Add in tomato sauce (or crushed tomatoes) and cook for a few minutes. Add cheese mix and cook some more until it's completely integrated into the tomato sauce and heated. Toss with linguine and shrimp.
1) I am out of sync with the rest of Central Time
a) incidentally, that means I'm in perfect sync with Chris, who's in Hawaii.
2) Colby doesn't get nearly as much sleep as he's used to
3) I watch a lot of late night television, with laptop enlapped.
Late night tele usually involves police procedurals (oh Bobby Goren, you are, by far, my *favorite*) and whatever's on Food Network that doesn't involve Paula Deen, Mark Summers, or Bobby Flay. This leads to an enhancement in Alton Brown in my TV diet and lately he's talked a lot about crustaceans and how they're very closely related to roaches in the animal kingdom. This hasn't really helped my appreciation for lobster as I found one of their animal kingdom cousins wandering around my bathroom (which involved quite a bit of screaming and frantic searches for things to throw); however, I am able to ignore the roach-shrimp dichotomy in my head because phobias are nothing, if not irrational, which had left me craving shrimp.
Rewind to a week ago, and I found myself at the downtown farmers market with basil, brussels sprouts, pan sausage, and okra. Basil presented a myriad of possibilities, so I decided to make a cheesy tomato sauce with shrimp and linguine for dinner (in part, because I always wondered what canned tomato sauce actually was.). Nom. Nom. Nom.
1/2 c ricotta cheese
1/3 c grated parmasean cheese
1/4 c basil, chiffonade
8 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 14.5 oz can tomato sauce (note: this is what I used... in the future, I'm using crushed tomatoes)
1 lb frozen shrimp, thawed in water and boiled for 3ish minutes, then shelled
1 lb linguine, boiled in heavily salted water
s+p to taste
combine ricotta, parm, basil and about 1/3 of the garlic and add salt+pepper to taste. The parm is salty enough, so it probably won't need a lot of salt and the pepper depends on your tolerance for heat. set aside. In a sauce pan, add olive oil and garlic and stir around until fragrant. Add in tomato sauce (or crushed tomatoes) and cook for a few minutes. Add cheese mix and cook some more until it's completely integrated into the tomato sauce and heated. Toss with linguine and shrimp.
19 September 2008
Stuffed, as in schedule and tomatoes
So I haven't updated with a meaningful post in awhile. At one point, I actually thought that people read this, but I think I sort of lost all of that steam. Also, I think that commenting on someone else's blog helped. Oh well. Maybe this will devolve back to my dumping ground for recipes to Kyle. Anywho.
Grad school is harder and easier at the same time. The classes are more difficult, but they cover things that are closer to what I'm interested in, as opposed to all of my horrible undergrad physics classes. Right now I'm taking Radiative Processes and Gaseous Nebulae (aka "gasbags"). Gasbags is an awesome class; radiative... not so much, but I'm getting by with a little help from my fellow grad students. In addition to classes, I'm doing research, TAing an intro astronomy class, and running the observatory open house on Friday and Saturday nights for the Painter Hall telescope. Needless to say, I'm busy. This, unfortunately, leaves me little time to cook; however, I have come up with some tasty concoctions in the past month or so.
Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes + Mushrooms
7ish oz ricotta
1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbs minced basil
s+p to taste
some amount of cherry tomatoes
some amount of whole button mushrooms, stemmed
EVOO
handful of shredded mozzarella
combine the ricotta,parm,basil,s+p. cut a small hole at the top of the cherry tomato and squeeze to get the rest of the innards out. take out the entire stem from the mushrooms. toss the tomatoes and the mushrooms in the EVOO. stuff them with the mixture. sprinkle with mozzarella. bake in a 350 deg oven for 25-30 minutes. yay.
I think that I want to have a tapas party. Except that's not really Spanish, so we could really call it an appetizer party. Except that's not a catchy name. Anywho, I'd make those and maybe put a piece of pasta in the tomato one and call it a "bite sized lasagna". Except that this requires me to have time. That's probably the worst bit of all.
Grad school is harder and easier at the same time. The classes are more difficult, but they cover things that are closer to what I'm interested in, as opposed to all of my horrible undergrad physics classes. Right now I'm taking Radiative Processes and Gaseous Nebulae (aka "gasbags"). Gasbags is an awesome class; radiative... not so much, but I'm getting by with a little help from my fellow grad students. In addition to classes, I'm doing research, TAing an intro astronomy class, and running the observatory open house on Friday and Saturday nights for the Painter Hall telescope. Needless to say, I'm busy. This, unfortunately, leaves me little time to cook; however, I have come up with some tasty concoctions in the past month or so.
Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes + Mushrooms
7ish oz ricotta
1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbs minced basil
s+p to taste
some amount of cherry tomatoes
some amount of whole button mushrooms, stemmed
EVOO
handful of shredded mozzarella
combine the ricotta,parm,basil,s+p. cut a small hole at the top of the cherry tomato and squeeze to get the rest of the innards out. take out the entire stem from the mushrooms. toss the tomatoes and the mushrooms in the EVOO. stuff them with the mixture. sprinkle with mozzarella. bake in a 350 deg oven for 25-30 minutes. yay.
I think that I want to have a tapas party. Except that's not really Spanish, so we could really call it an appetizer party. Except that's not a catchy name. Anywho, I'd make those and maybe put a piece of pasta in the tomato one and call it a "bite sized lasagna". Except that this requires me to have time. That's probably the worst bit of all.
10 August 2008
Lego my dinner party!
Okay folks, here's the lego party post. Unfortunately, there weren't really any pictures, but I'll do my best to describe.
So the whole thing that started this party was this post that I found on Slashfood and then later on Tastespotting. It was apparently taken from the Betty Crocker website, but it seemed like a fun idea. Shortly thereafter, I was alerted to the existence of Lego gummy candy from Kellog's. Seeing that I'm not actually three, I procured a box. Also, at some random trip to the mall (the one where Colby and Kyle went on a mandate to see the batman movie) I found these hard tablet powder candy legos that you can actually build with! Super cute.
We (Colby, Kyle, and I) used box mixes to make the cake (chocolate, yellow, and marbled) and then used white frosting + food coloring from Hill Country Fare. The interesting thing about Hill Country Fare is that it's one of a few different house brands for HEB, a largely Texan grocery store; given that Texas is beef country, I shouldn't have been surprised when I found out that the main fat ingredient was lard. Oh well. I didn't have any vegetarians at the party. We made the cakes the night before and they came out okay. It doesn't help that I suck at frosting cakes.
To continue on with the lego theme, I made lasagna (which is sort of brick-shaped!) which was topped with homemade croutons that were cylindrical. The lasagna is actually super simple and mostly stolen from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (of which I have mixed feelings):
15 oz ricotta
1.25 c grated parm
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil, minced
1 egg, lightly beaten
12 no boil lasagna noodles (I used HEB brand)
16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
3ish c sauce
I made the sauce first which consisted of:
1 lb ground beef
s+p
1/4 c minced onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs olive oil
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (I used Contandina crushed tomatoes with herbs by accident)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried oregano, parsley, basil
Brown/season meat w/s+p, break up into little bits. In a sauce pan add in olive oil and onions and let them soften for like five minutes (or more if you realize that you've forgotten to mince the garlic), add in the garlic and let cook for 30 seconds and then add in both cans of processed tomatoes and whatever herbs you decide. Let that simmer for 15ish minutes or so and that could be a sauce in and of itself. Add the meat (try to drain off the fat) and then let that sit with the sauce for as long as possible.
To construct the lasagna:
preheat the oven to 375. combine ricotta+s+p+egg+1 c parm+basil mix thoroughly until combined. add in like 1/4-1/2 a cup of sauce to the bottom of whatever you're using to cook in. It should be rectangular and deepish. layer on three lasagna noodles side-by-side and spread some amount of the ricotta mixture on it. Add about 1/2 c of sauce over top. cover in mozzarella and do this layering bit twice more. take the remaining three noodles and layer over top the rest of the pasta, cover with the remaining sauce and then cover in the rest of the mozzarella and 1/4 c of parm. cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Take it out and then uncover it and bake for an addition 25ish minutes until everything is soft and the cheese is all melty.
I found that the easiest way to spread on the ricotta mixture to the noodles was to take the dry noodle in hand and then spread the cheese on it before putting it in the pan. It caused way too much grief to try to do it the other way.
As a side, I made garlic bread the Heidi Swanson way and at the very end, put 2 little half slices of fresh mozzarella on each piece so that they would look like lego things.
Everyone loved the lasagna and people that that the cakes were clever. I'm not so sure that they tasted all that good, but that wasn't really the point with these cakes. I made a flourless chocolate cake the other night which turned out "better", but that's for a later post.
So the whole thing that started this party was this post that I found on Slashfood and then later on Tastespotting. It was apparently taken from the Betty Crocker website, but it seemed like a fun idea. Shortly thereafter, I was alerted to the existence of Lego gummy candy from Kellog's. Seeing that I'm not actually three, I procured a box. Also, at some random trip to the mall (the one where Colby and Kyle went on a mandate to see the batman movie) I found these hard tablet powder candy legos that you can actually build with! Super cute.
We (Colby, Kyle, and I) used box mixes to make the cake (chocolate, yellow, and marbled) and then used white frosting + food coloring from Hill Country Fare. The interesting thing about Hill Country Fare is that it's one of a few different house brands for HEB, a largely Texan grocery store; given that Texas is beef country, I shouldn't have been surprised when I found out that the main fat ingredient was lard. Oh well. I didn't have any vegetarians at the party. We made the cakes the night before and they came out okay. It doesn't help that I suck at frosting cakes.
To continue on with the lego theme, I made lasagna (which is sort of brick-shaped!) which was topped with homemade croutons that were cylindrical. The lasagna is actually super simple and mostly stolen from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (of which I have mixed feelings):
15 oz ricotta
1.25 c grated parm
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil, minced
1 egg, lightly beaten
12 no boil lasagna noodles (I used HEB brand)
16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
3ish c sauce
I made the sauce first which consisted of:
1 lb ground beef
s+p
1/4 c minced onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs olive oil
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (I used Contandina crushed tomatoes with herbs by accident)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried oregano, parsley, basil
Brown/season meat w/s+p, break up into little bits. In a sauce pan add in olive oil and onions and let them soften for like five minutes (or more if you realize that you've forgotten to mince the garlic), add in the garlic and let cook for 30 seconds and then add in both cans of processed tomatoes and whatever herbs you decide. Let that simmer for 15ish minutes or so and that could be a sauce in and of itself. Add the meat (try to drain off the fat) and then let that sit with the sauce for as long as possible.
To construct the lasagna:
preheat the oven to 375. combine ricotta+s+p+egg+1 c parm+basil mix thoroughly until combined. add in like 1/4-1/2 a cup of sauce to the bottom of whatever you're using to cook in. It should be rectangular and deepish. layer on three lasagna noodles side-by-side and spread some amount of the ricotta mixture on it. Add about 1/2 c of sauce over top. cover in mozzarella and do this layering bit twice more. take the remaining three noodles and layer over top the rest of the pasta, cover with the remaining sauce and then cover in the rest of the mozzarella and 1/4 c of parm. cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Take it out and then uncover it and bake for an addition 25ish minutes until everything is soft and the cheese is all melty.
I found that the easiest way to spread on the ricotta mixture to the noodles was to take the dry noodle in hand and then spread the cheese on it before putting it in the pan. It caused way too much grief to try to do it the other way.
As a side, I made garlic bread the Heidi Swanson way and at the very end, put 2 little half slices of fresh mozzarella on each piece so that they would look like lego things.
Everyone loved the lasagna and people that that the cakes were clever. I'm not so sure that they tasted all that good, but that wasn't really the point with these cakes. I made a flourless chocolate cake the other night which turned out "better", but that's for a later post.
12 April 2008
Stuffed Shells
Finally, a recipe! After the ravioli fiasco (oh yeah, they definitely didn't turn out that well. Sadness... and I have all these left over wontons. What to do? What to do?), I wanted to do some sort of stuffed pasta right, so I opted for jumbo shells stuffed with ricotta cheese.
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 c mushrooms chopped
fresh basil
10 oz? ricotta
8 oz shells?
spinach
I've stopped following recipes. I took minced garlic and mushrooms and sauteed them in butter and olive oil with a little bit of salt. When they were almost done, I added some finely chopped basil and then incorporated this into the ricotta which I then put into the shells which I then covered with (gasp!) jarred tomato sauce added some mozzarella and parm over top and then baked at 375 for 15 minutes. Serve over wilted spinach and w00t. The sauce that I used was terrible. So next time I'm not going to dick around with that. I have about 5 oz of ricotta left and I'm not sure what to do with it. I was thinking about something along the lines of a berry dessert.
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 c mushrooms chopped
fresh basil
10 oz? ricotta
8 oz shells?
spinach
I've stopped following recipes. I took minced garlic and mushrooms and sauteed them in butter and olive oil with a little bit of salt. When they were almost done, I added some finely chopped basil and then incorporated this into the ricotta which I then put into the shells which I then covered with (gasp!) jarred tomato sauce added some mozzarella and parm over top and then baked at 375 for 15 minutes. Serve over wilted spinach and w00t. The sauce that I used was terrible. So next time I'm not going to dick around with that. I have about 5 oz of ricotta left and I'm not sure what to do with it. I was thinking about something along the lines of a berry dessert.
08 April 2008
why I shouldn't go grocery shopping whilst hungry or stressed
I can't control food purchases. I can only control my nail polish-buying slightly better... which is why I walked out of Meijer without the four dollar bottle of Sally Hansen, but was armed with baby corn, blackberries, and ricotta. *However* I intend to make Thai-something-curry soup with chicken, potatoes, and other stuff; stuffed shells with ricotta+garlic+basil+mushrooms atop a bed of wilted spinach?; and stir-fry with lots of baby corn, broccoli, mushrooms! Go me. We'll see how much of this I actually cook before it all rots. I forgot the mozzarella!!
I need to make corn bread again soon. I think it's draining my soul.
I need to make corn bread again soon. I think it's draining my soul.
24 March 2008
Mushroom Stuffing+Mushroom Pasta
Hokay. So what I'm supposed to be doing right now is a literature search on the observed radii of white dwarfs, but it turns out that that's boring and even though they were stars, they're dead and therefore dead to me. Anywho, Easter was an interesting weekend beginning with horribleness, but ending with a lovely pot-luck dinner party which required some sort of dish. Yay for mushrooms.
I made a mushroom stuffing that turned out *okay*. I think there were too many bread crumbs. Also, I would have liked stronger notes of garlic, shallots and something to "freshen" the taste. Anywho recipe:
portabello mushrooms, roughly chopped
shiitake mushrooms, de-stemmed, roughly chopped
1c bread crumbs (next time, I'd probably use like.. 2/3 c, maybe even less)
6 cloves garlic
1/2 shallot
lemon
butter
olive oil
oregano
Parmesan
fresh basil
salt, pepper
mince 3 of the cloves of garlic, all of the shallots and sautee them in oil. Add in the mushrooms, about 2 tbs butter, and some salt. cook cook cook. when it's almost done, add in the ripped up basil to wilt+flavor and some oregano. Add in a bit of lemon as well also, pepper and more salt. Remove from heat
put in 3 tbs butter + bread crumbs + remaining garlic in the pan + olive oil (because fat is tasty). This is to "toast" the bread crumbs, and is probably ill-advised. Maybe you don't want to do this step and maybe you want to put in all the garlic and butter at once and double the amount of shallots. So combine all this in a bowl, as well as a good dusting of grated parm cheez and mix. yay? Squeeze on some more lemon to make it a brighter flavor. I know that this could be really tasty, but I don't know how. I actually think that this would actually be pretty awesome with couscous instead. Maybe I have my answer.
Anywho, what was kind of interesting about this is that I made something super similar on Thursday night. Chris suggested the mushroom dish. I decided that it was going to be a stuffing. Sometimes I'm afraid that all my food tastes the same. Woo hoo insecurities creeping into my cooking. So yeah, on Thursday:
2/3 box pasta (not long noodles, I used rotelle)
1/2 tray pre-washed, cut white mushrooms roughly chopped (yes, I'm lazy)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 poblano pepper, roasted, skinned, chopped
1/2 shallot
some amount of lemon
parm cheese
mozzarella cheese
butter, oil
fresh basil, torn
salt/pepper/garlic salt
boil boil boil pasta. sautee garlic, shallots in oil. Add in butter, mushrooms. Add in pepper, lemon, salt+pepper, garlic salt. stir stir stir. Add in mixture to hot, drained pasta. Add in cheese... mix mix mix. I think that one turned out better. Also, it turned into a one bowl dinner which is pretty much amazing and my favorite thing ever
So I guess I was inspired by the pasta dish and is probably the reason why it'd work better with couscous. Also, the reason why i used 1/2 a shallot for the second dish is because I used the other half earlier. Heh. I usually have them on hand because i hate hate hate onions, so they're nicer (for me) to have to eat around.
I made a mushroom stuffing that turned out *okay*. I think there were too many bread crumbs. Also, I would have liked stronger notes of garlic, shallots and something to "freshen" the taste. Anywho recipe:
portabello mushrooms, roughly chopped
shiitake mushrooms, de-stemmed, roughly chopped
1c bread crumbs (next time, I'd probably use like.. 2/3 c, maybe even less)
6 cloves garlic
1/2 shallot
lemon
butter
olive oil
oregano
Parmesan
fresh basil
salt, pepper
mince 3 of the cloves of garlic, all of the shallots and sautee them in oil. Add in the mushrooms, about 2 tbs butter, and some salt. cook cook cook. when it's almost done, add in the ripped up basil to wilt+flavor and some oregano. Add in a bit of lemon as well also, pepper and more salt. Remove from heat
put in 3 tbs butter + bread crumbs + remaining garlic in the pan + olive oil (because fat is tasty). This is to "toast" the bread crumbs, and is probably ill-advised. Maybe you don't want to do this step and maybe you want to put in all the garlic and butter at once and double the amount of shallots. So combine all this in a bowl, as well as a good dusting of grated parm cheez and mix. yay? Squeeze on some more lemon to make it a brighter flavor. I know that this could be really tasty, but I don't know how. I actually think that this would actually be pretty awesome with couscous instead. Maybe I have my answer.
Anywho, what was kind of interesting about this is that I made something super similar on Thursday night. Chris suggested the mushroom dish. I decided that it was going to be a stuffing. Sometimes I'm afraid that all my food tastes the same. Woo hoo insecurities creeping into my cooking. So yeah, on Thursday:
2/3 box pasta (not long noodles, I used rotelle)
1/2 tray pre-washed, cut white mushrooms roughly chopped (yes, I'm lazy)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 poblano pepper, roasted, skinned, chopped
1/2 shallot
some amount of lemon
parm cheese
mozzarella cheese
butter, oil
fresh basil, torn
salt/pepper/garlic salt
boil boil boil pasta. sautee garlic, shallots in oil. Add in butter, mushrooms. Add in pepper, lemon, salt+pepper, garlic salt. stir stir stir. Add in mixture to hot, drained pasta. Add in cheese... mix mix mix. I think that one turned out better. Also, it turned into a one bowl dinner which is pretty much amazing and my favorite thing ever
So I guess I was inspired by the pasta dish and is probably the reason why it'd work better with couscous. Also, the reason why i used 1/2 a shallot for the second dish is because I used the other half earlier. Heh. I usually have them on hand because i hate hate hate onions, so they're nicer (for me) to have to eat around.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)