Refridgerator Fried Rice

We returned from a hike and we only had one egg left. Starving and reliant on what was in the fridge, here is what we made:

1. Mince up the 1/2 yellow onion left over from last night's dinner
2. Mince of some of the 2 stalks celery you left out from last nights dinner
3. Mince up some of the left over packaged Lassen's ham
4. In a small non stick pan, heat a little olive oil or other fat and add the above ingredients
5. When soft, add the rice left over from Chinese food on Friday. About a generous cup. Saute until starting to brown. Grind lots of pepper into mixture.
6. In a small bowl, whisk up egg. Push rice aside and allow egg to start to fry. Then eventually ix into rice and toss and continue to fry. Add some soy sauce. Continue to cook until egg are sufficiently dry. Serve.

This was ridiculously tasty.

Garlic Bread

Tonight Eric came home with the groceries and there was not enough pasta in the package to feed 3. I think I have mentioned that my little brother now lives with us. We had some leftover french loaf from last night (used to make croutons for Cesear salad) so I decided to make garlic bread. I have never made garlic bread. Here is what I did:

1. Blanched a lot of garlic cloves in boiling water for about a minute. (Got this idea from an Italian cookbook on instructions of how to make garlic butter).
2. After blanching, used a masher to mash.
3. Mashed up a stick of butter with the garlic and then melted.
4. Sliced up the French Loaf and Toasted one Side under the broiler.
5. Added some Mexican Oregano, Thyme and Salt to butter mixture.
6. When Bread was toasted, removed and dunked the "untoasted" side in the butter. (That bread soaked up a lot of butter).
7. Grated a little Parmesan on each slice and placed back under the broiler until toasty brown.

Serve HOT. The garlic bread was unfortunately delicious.

Dialing in the Family Pasta Sauce. This time with Chipotles.

Growing up my mom had a spaghetti sauce recipe that she followed to a T every time. For a long time I imagined that one day I would too have a sauce that we made consistently. It just hasn't worked out that way. Sauce is always a play of what you have in stock, what is available locally, what the mood is and who you are feeding. Tonight's sauce was spicy and sweet and yummy.

So tonight, we made the sauce like this:

1. In a Dutch Oven like pot (my Crueset is my go to), heat a little olive oil, cook up pieces of hot Italian turkey sausage. Remove with slotted spoon to a bowl.
2. Add a little more olive oil to pot and add 1/2 minced yellow onion, 2 minced carrots, 2 minced celery sticks. Saute for a while.
3. Meanwhile, mince up some fresh rosemary. (I love a little fresh sage too, but did not have any tonight). And mince up the left over pork chop from last night that you already cooked. (Optional and not necessary of course).
4. Once veggies have sauteed to your liking, add the herbs and mix. (Tonight I added Mexican Oregano, Thyme and Fresh chopped Rosemary, Red Pepper Flakes and Lots of Freshly Ground Pepper). Then make a little room to brown the pork a bit. (This could have been done pre veggies, but I spaced). Once pork has browned a bit, add sausage back to pot and stir and let "meld" a bit. Usually I use red wine to deglaze the pan, but tonight I used some port. (Made it too sweet which led to the adding of the chiptoles.) Stirred and allowed to soak until pan was again "dry".
5. Add a can of Fire Roasted Chopped Tomatoes. I wanted the sauce more "saucy". So I peered into my fridge to see if I could find some tomato sauce. I found one labeled 11.03.08. It did not seem okay. If I had had beef broth, I would have added that, but I had some Chicken Stock, so I added a little of that.
   
6. I started the water to boil and began prepping the garlic bread.
   
7. When I tasted the sauce, it seemed too sweet, so I added 2 canned chiptoles. This fixed the problem. Brought Sauce to a boil and allowed it to simmer.
   
8. Once pasta was cooking, I added some chopped fresh Italian Parsley and continued to allow to simmer. I added some salt. (We like the Strangled Priest Noodle).
   
9. Serve with Parmesan to grate.

Apple Chutney with Smoked Chipotle

I came home with porkchops and apples with a plan to make some applesauce.  But there was no butter, so I had to rethink it a little went for a spicy apple condiment to go with the chops.  I made this on the fly as I found ingredients, so if I spent some more time with it, I might change the order of events, but this is what I did and it turned out super yummy.

1. Peel and Core and chop your apples to desired size.  I squeezed some Meyer lemon on them as I went to help prevent browning. I think i had about 8 apples.  Pink Ladies.

2.  Mince about 2 inches of ginger.

3. In a heavy bottom pan, heat olive oil.  (This was the only fat I had.  Butter or ghee might have been better).  Add yellow mustard seed and then the ginger and then some turmeric (purely for the pretty yellow color).  Add the apples.  Mix well.

4. I allowed the apples to cook for like this as I wondered what I was going to do.  I found a few of Olivia's magic smoked chipotles.  I minced up 2 of them (removing the seeds) and added them to the apple mixture.  Then eventually I added some cider vinegar and sugar and allowed to cook over low heat, stirring often.  

5. The mixture probably cooked for about 20 minutes in total while I made the Cesear salad and prepped the pork.  When it seemed done enough, I transferred it to a bowl and covered it with foil to keep it warm.  Before serving I mixed in some chopped cilantro.

बुफ्फालो चिप्तोले सुंद्रिएद टोमाटो पास्ता

सोमेहोव माय ब्लॉगर अकाउंट आईटी ट्रांस्लातिंग एवेर्य्थिंग इ से इन्तो संस्कृत व्हिच इस प्रेत्टी फुन्न्य, कज इ दोन'टी स्पेअक आईटी बुत हवे वांटेड तो लीर्ण आईटी फॉर अ व्हिले।

बुफ्फालो चिप्तोले सुन्दिरेड टोमाटो पास्ता

Buffalo Pasta Sauce

I went to farmer and the cook tonight to pick up ingredients for dinner.  We have been sick for like 2 weeks in my house and i was tired of soup.  It felt like we needed more fortification.  Sometimes getting dinner stuff at FnC is hard.  They have the freshest most amazing local organic produce in town but the shelves are lacking the other stuff that I want.

I left with some frozen ground buffalo, kale, egg noodle pasta and a can of crushed tomatoes.

Here is what I did:

1. Defrosted buffalo meat under warm water.
2. Start pot of water to boil
3. In a heavy Crueset dutch oven like pot, heat some olive oil.
4. Break up buffalo meat and brown.  Grind some fresh pepper into the meat while browning
5. While meat is browning, find some bacon(!) in your fridge left over from the holidays.
6. Slice up 3 strips of bacon.  
7. While meat is still browning, mince up 1/2 a yellow onion and the rest of the carrots from Sunday's farmer's market.
8. When meat has browned, remove from pan and add bacon.  Cook up bacon until fat has been rendered and done to your liking.  Remove.
9. Add a little extra olive oil to pot and add onions and carrots.  (If I had had celery or fennel, I would have used some of that too.)  Stir and start the saute process.  Add your desired herbs and spices.  Tonight I had some fresh sage in the fridge so I minced up some of that and added dried thyme, Mexican oregano, red chili flakes.  Once the onions and carrots were browned, I poured a little port into pot to deglaze it.  (If wine were open, I would have used that).
10. I added the meats back in and mixed well, then added the tomato mixture back in.  
11. By this time the water was boiling, but I wanted the sauce to have a chance to meld, so I turned the water off.  
12. I found some sun dried tomatoes in the fridge, so I thinly sliced about 5 of those up and added them to the pan.  I added a little extra pepper flakes and ground pepper for more spice.
13. I thinly sliced up the beautiful amazing kale from Steve and added that and stirred it in.  (We need the Kale in this house for fortification).
14. Turned the water back on.  That egg pasta cooks in 4 minutes.
15. I tossed the egg pasta with a little butter (this is totally cheating).  And served the pasta with a little splash of olive oil and Parmesan for grating.

Both Geordie and Eric liked it.  I did too.

Cayenne for Sore Throat

After having a burning frog in my throat for a week, I finally had the concoction of:

hot water

lemon juice

honey and 

CAYENNE

and that made all the difference

Corner TURNED!

Potato, Fennel, Leek Gratin

One might imagine with the holidays behind us that the concept of  "eating light" would kick in.  Oh well.  On our way to Rainbow Bridge this evening I suggest Potato Gratin and Eric said, "Yes.  That is What I Want."

1. Heat the Oven to 375.

2. Cut a piece of garlic in half and smear all the sides of a 9x12 baking dish.

3. In a heavy bottomed pan (like a Creuset Dutch oven) pour in a quart of milk.  (If you are trying to gain weight, make it a half n half creme to milk mixture).

4. Peal and thinly slice a lot of your favorite potatoes.  Tonight we used the Yellow Finnish ones they had a Rainbow.   I think i peeled and sliced about 9 or so.  Add to the milk as you go cuz peeled and sliced potatoes do not respond well to open air.

5. Thinly Slice 2 large leeks and wash.  Drain and add to milk mixture.

6. Thinly slice 3 cloves garlic and add to milk mixture.

7. Tonight I added 2 bay leaves, some dried thyme (fresh sprigs is also great), freshly ground nutmeg, white pepper (did not feel like grinding fresh so added already ground), and lots of freshly ground black pepper.  I think this is a pretty standard offering.  Obviously there is room for experimentation.

8.  I start the heat at medium under the milk and potato mixture.  I was busy blogging about class today and my latest discovery of my own depression and I did not want to watch the milk come to a boil.  So I set the timer for about 15 minutes and came back to check every so often.  In general, you want to bring the mixture to a boil slowly and then turn down and simmer until the potatoes become soft, but not to the point of falling apart.  

9. Slice up a big bulb of fennel as thinly as possible.  Once milk has come to boil and you are simmering it, add fennel.  

10. Grate the block of Gruyere that you can get at Rainbow.  Seems like a shy 2 cups but I did not measure.

11.. When ready, use a slotted spoon to bring some of the potato mixture into the gratin dish.  Sprinkle with some cheese, some ground black pepper and a little freshly grated nutmeg.  Layer some more potato mixture and repeat.  Layer the last layer and add enough of the milk to come up to the edge of the top potatoes.  Cover with remaining cheese and dot with butter.  (Clearly there was no resolution to lose weight!)

12. Put in oven and set timer to 45 minutes.  Check on gratin.  You want a nice toasty brown crust and not too much bubbling.  When done, remove and make a simple sharp green salad to cut it.

13. Tonight I made a dressing with garlic, shallots, Serrano, Meyer lemon rind, Meyer lemon juice, country mustard and olive oil.  The Salad was Butter Lettuce with cilantro and celery.  (Fridge Review, baby).

Pan Roasted Open Faced Grilled Cheese with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Avocado and Chiptole Lime Salt

5 out of the 6 ingredients came direct from Steve and Olivia at Farmer and the Cook

1. Heat an indulgent amount of olive oil in non-stick or other favorite grilled cheese making pan

2. Slice up some of Olivia's fresh spelt seed bread 

3. Place slices in oil and allow to "toast"

4. Meanwhile, grate up some yummy sharp cheddar cheese.  You could get this at FnC, but I had some from Vermont in my fridge.

5. Turn slices of bread over, sprinkle with cheese and cover to allow cheese to melt.

6. When cheese is melted, remove to a plate.  Put 2 or more of olivia's amazing smoked sun dried tomatoes on top.  Slice up some avocado and place on each sandwich.  Sprinkle with Olivia's amazing chipolte Lime sea salt.  Eat with a fork and knife for tidiness or not.

You can get Olivia's chipolte mix and tomatoes at organichiles.com.

The Perfect Sun Dried Tomato

Olivia Chase of Farmer and the Cook has created the perfect Sun Dried Tomato.  Soft, packed with flavor, moist and chewy, it lends itself to a whole new paradigm of what do to with sun dried tomatoes.

Her site:

oragnichilies.com will start to sell them soon 

along with her perfect chipotle lime salt and other goodies.

You can also visit her at the Farmer's Market in Ojai on Sundays next to Friend's Ranch stand which is where you should get your lemonade.