Posts tagged cooking
Vincent Talleu shows you how he makes croissants, petits pains au chocolat, and other pastries.
(via kottke)
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress
I hope this documentary comes to DC! If you’re in New York, you get to see it at MoMA tomorrow and Saturday.
Three-star chef Ferran Adrià is widely considered the best, most innovative and craziest chef in the world. In his kitchen, that which was once familiar disintegrates. Each year his restaurant El Bulli closes for half a year – time for Adrià and his team to retire to his Barcelona cooking laboratory to create the new menu for the coming season. Anything goes – except copying oneself.
Recipe for Banana Bread illustrated by Eliane Mancera on They Draw and Cook.
You might also like this recipe illustration I posted last year: http://chezmoncef.com/post/119488815/mousse-au-chocolate-illustration-clementine-derodit
Eggplant Impromptu in Flavor Major
Here’s the recipe for my off-the-cuff dinner tonight. It turned out quite well, so I thought I’d share it with you.
Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
3/4 lb. indian eggplant (4 to 6 of them)
1 small fresh tomato
1 red bell pepper
cumin
ground coriander
curry powder
ground turmeric
garam masala
coarsely ground sea salt
ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
Method:
Cut each garlic clove in half
Cut the tomato in 4
Remove the stem, and clean the inside of the pepper
Cut it lengthwise in about 1/4” thick pieces
Remove the stems and slice the eggplants in thin rounds
Spread a generous amount of olive oil on a large baking sheet. Cover with foil beforehand for easy cleanup.
Coat the eggplant, tomato, pepper and garlic
Arrange them all in one layer. Try not to overlap.
Season evenly with a few good pinches of salt and pepper, 1 or 2 small pinches of garam masala and turmeric, and several pinches of cumin, coriander and curry.
Bake in the oven at 450 degrees (F) for about 20 minutes. Check after 10 and 15 minutes depending on how thinly you sliced the eggplant.
Once the eggplant is soft, remove everything except for the peppers (they take longer to soften) and mash them together with a fork in a bowl. Add the peppers once they’re done.
I had some leftover rotisserie chicken that I added to the mixture, which then ended up inside a pita.
Pear poached in red wine (Syrah from Chile) with sugar, cloves, cinnamon and fresh ginger. Topped with vanilla ice cream.
One of the 3 desserts my girlfriend and I concocted over Thanksgiving. I prepared this one and she made carrot cake and pumpkin pie in phyllo pastry.
Halibut with Nut & Herb Crust and Roasted Pepper Dipping Sauce Duo
This is my remix of this Epicurious recipe. I substituted the butter and oil spray with olive oil, added edamame, pumpkin seeds and pine nuts to the crust preparation, removed chives, and added a duo of roasted pepper dipping sauces and mixed greens.
Ingredients:
Seapoint Farms Dry Roasted Edamame (I picked up a jar from Costco)
pumpkin seeds
walnuts
pine nuts
panko (japanese breadcrumbs)
fresh basil
fresh italian parsley
1 lemon
four 6 to 8-ounce halibut filets
mixed greens (I used the Organic Spinach & Field Mix from Wegmans)
Preparation:
Over low-to-medium heat, toast 1 handful each of the edamame, walnuts, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and panko. This should only take a few minutes. You will know once you start smelling them or seeing the pine nuts turning brown. Once done, let them cool for a few minutes.
If you don’t have time to roast peppers, you can skip this step and use jarred roasted red and yellow peppers. If you like your ingredients fresh, then read on. Place a vegetable steamer (like this one) directly over the gas burner and turn the heat on high. Place 1 red and 1 yellow whole bell peppers on the steamer and turn them using tongs until charred all over. Then place in a glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let steam for about 10 minutes or until the skin is soft enough to peel.
While the peppers are loosening up, cover a baking sheet with foil, then rinse and pat dry the halibut, place the filets on the sheet, then season with fresh cracked sea salt and black pepper on both sides and coat with extra virgin olive oil.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a food processor, place the toasted nut mixture, and a handful each of parsley and basil. Pulse until you get a nice even texture. Pour several sprinkles over the top of each filet and press until evenly coated. Place the filets in the 400-degree oven and bake for 8 minutes.
While the fish is cooking, peel the peppers and place only the red one in a food processor. Season with fresh cracked sea salt and black pepper and olive oil. I didn’t add any herbs when I made this, but I’m thinking some parsley and basil would have pumped up the party in my mouth. Process until a smooth purée forms. Place in a ramekin. Repeat with the yellow pepper.
Place the ramekins in the oven about 1 minute before the fish is done, just to heat the peppers a little. Once the fish is done, squeeze some lemon juice over it. In a bowl, place some of the mixed greens and season with salt, pepper and olive oil. Plate everything and serve.
White wine probably compliments this meal better than red, but I opened a 2005 bottle of Marqués de Cáceres Rioja Crianza, which I picked up from Costco for $12. I had tried this wine in Barcelona and loved it.
Middle Eastern Bison Meatballs with Cilantro-Yogurt Sauce
I made these tonight and they were amazing! Recipe courtesy of the Epicurious iPhone app.
Whole Wheat Gnocchi with Ground Beef & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
- Bring water to a boil for the gnocchi.
- While the water is boiling, prepare the sauce in a food processor. Combine one shallot, 2 garlic cloves, a good handful or two of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roasted red peppers (canned is fine, just squeeze out the liquid), salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Pulse until smooth, but leave it a little chunky. You’re not making soup here.
- Heat olive oil over medium-high in a nonstick pan and cook the ground beef. I break it up into small pieces as it’s cooking and season with salt and pepper. This should only take a few minutes.
- Pour the meat in a bowl then pour the sauce from the food processor into the pan and heat over medium. While the sauce is simmering, add salt to the boiling water and drop the gnocchi. Once they start floating to the top (takes less than 5 minutes), drain and then dump into the sauce and add the meat back in the pan as well. Combine everything and serve.
An easy, healthy and delicious meal in way less than 30 minutes. Rachael Ray ain’t got nothin’ on me!
Scallops with orange and organic roasted red pepper and tomato soup
Ingredients:
- Raw sea scallops (I got mine frozen from Costco)
- Organic Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup from Pacific Natural Foods
- 1 orange
- mediterranean salt
- black pepper
- finely chopped fresh italian parsley (a small handful)
- extra virgin olive oil
Rinse the scallops and pat dry. Season with cracked salt and pepper, and drizzle with olive oil. Let rest for a few minutes.
While you’re heating the soup, heat a nonstick pan over medium-high heat, then cook the scallops for about 2 minutes per side. Towards the end, squeeze in some juice from the orange. When done, sprinkle with parsley.
Plate, serve and enjoy this easy, quick and healthy meal!
(sorry about the photo quality. it didn’t come out as well as I wanted.)
