I'm too lazy to type out the recipe, so here's a link: http://www.thekitchn.com/lentils-with-broiled-eggplant-144643
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Lentils with Broiled Eggplant
I've never broiled eggplant before, but when I saw this recipe from Ottolenghi's Plenty More book, I had to make it. Mine turned out just as delicious as the one from the book looked! And I finished mine by drizzling some maple smoked sea salt on it :)
I'm too lazy to type out the recipe, so here's a link: http://www.thekitchn.com/lentils-with-broiled-eggplant-144643
I'm too lazy to type out the recipe, so here's a link: http://www.thekitchn.com/lentils-with-broiled-eggplant-144643
Pie!
I've recently accomplished one of my 2015 resolutions: bike to the coast (and back)! After this 40 mile biking expedition involving lots of big hill climbing, we were pretty hungry so we went to a cafe in Woodside. Their bakery case had many different flavors of pie, and one slice could be had for $4. I was seriously contemplating just eating some kind of fruit pie for lunch, but figured I needed something more substantial after the big bike ride. The pot pie I ordered fell short of the pie-ness I had wanted, so I resolved to make my own berry pie at home.
So I made the best pie dough recipe I learned from a super awesome baker Cathy a couple of years ago, and waited for my friend Nance to bring over frozen boysenberries from her yard, and we baked a super awesome pie!
Dough: (enough to make a top and a bottom crust)
305 g flour
15 g sugar
5 g salt
225 g butter (1 cup)
4 - 6 tbs cold water
Filling: (don't make this until you've got the crust ready to roll out!)
1/3 c flour
3/4 c sugar
zest of 1 lemon
5 c washed and dried berries
Mix the flour, sugar, salt together. Cut the butter into the flour mixture (I used a food processor) until it's crumbly. Add water slowly until the dough comes together. Divide the mixture in half, make each half into a disc maybe 6" in diameter, and wrap with cling/saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hrs.
Roll out the dough until it's larger than the pie plate (I used a 10-12" pyrex pie plate) because the bottom layer will need to follow the tapered sides of the plate when you put it in, so it's nice to have extra. I find it easier to do the rolling with the dough on a Silpat or cling wrap, so then you can just flip the dough layer into the plate and it comes right off. Put the plate into the fridge or freezer as you roll out the top layer of dough.
Pour in the filling mixture into the bottom layer, and then put the top layer of dough on, and use your fingers to fold the two layers of dough together to seal the edges and prevent leaking. Make the circumference whatever design you like! (We did pinching on the left, and pressing down with a fork on the right)
Cut some slits in the top of the pie for venting the berry juices, and then paint the whole thing with an egg yolk mixture (1 egg yolk + 1 tbs water) so it'll brown nicely.
Bake at 425 F for 15 mins, then turn the oven down to 350 F and bake another 30 - 40 mins.
Here's the important part! Take the pie out and let it cool at least a couple of hours so the inside mixture can thicken before cutting into it. It is hard to resist eating it immediately though with the aromas wafting around the kitchen, but this is really important!
This would have been even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but it's pretty darn good already!
So I made the best pie dough recipe I learned from a super awesome baker Cathy a couple of years ago, and waited for my friend Nance to bring over frozen boysenberries from her yard, and we baked a super awesome pie!
Dough: (enough to make a top and a bottom crust)
305 g flour
15 g sugar
5 g salt
225 g butter (1 cup)
4 - 6 tbs cold water
Filling: (don't make this until you've got the crust ready to roll out!)
1/3 c flour
3/4 c sugar
zest of 1 lemon
5 c washed and dried berries
Mix the flour, sugar, salt together. Cut the butter into the flour mixture (I used a food processor) until it's crumbly. Add water slowly until the dough comes together. Divide the mixture in half, make each half into a disc maybe 6" in diameter, and wrap with cling/saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hrs.
Roll out the dough until it's larger than the pie plate (I used a 10-12" pyrex pie plate) because the bottom layer will need to follow the tapered sides of the plate when you put it in, so it's nice to have extra. I find it easier to do the rolling with the dough on a Silpat or cling wrap, so then you can just flip the dough layer into the plate and it comes right off. Put the plate into the fridge or freezer as you roll out the top layer of dough.
Pour in the filling mixture into the bottom layer, and then put the top layer of dough on, and use your fingers to fold the two layers of dough together to seal the edges and prevent leaking. Make the circumference whatever design you like! (We did pinching on the left, and pressing down with a fork on the right)
Cut some slits in the top of the pie for venting the berry juices, and then paint the whole thing with an egg yolk mixture (1 egg yolk + 1 tbs water) so it'll brown nicely.
Bake at 425 F for 15 mins, then turn the oven down to 350 F and bake another 30 - 40 mins.
Here's the important part! Take the pie out and let it cool at least a couple of hours so the inside mixture can thicken before cutting into it. It is hard to resist eating it immediately though with the aromas wafting around the kitchen, but this is really important!
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Seafood Wednesdays
Wednesdays after work, G normally plays pick up ultimate frisbee and eats his favorite Chipotle food afterward, leaving me to eat whatever I want. Which means seafood! It's now salmon season, and you can buy Copper River Salmon (it's the best kind) from Costco! But the problem with Costco is that I don't have a membership card (so thanks to Jenn for always being willing to take me!) and you have to buy a lot of it at once. So I invited my work (and lunchtime climbing) friends over to cook and eat.
6/10/15: Seafood Wednesday #1
I was also obsessing over sea beans at this point, so Jenn had to put up with trying many different preparations of fish with and without sea beans. Because we're engineers, we did a D.O.E. (Design of Experiment)
Options #1-3 are all baked in aluminum foil with lemon, salt, sea beans on top. #1 is with butter, #2 is with olive oil, and #3 was the control with no fat/oil. Guess which one turned out the best? OLIVE OIL!
Option #4 I made while we were waiting for #1-3 in the oven. I put some olive oil in the pan and put salt and pepper onto the fish and pan fried it.
Verdict: #4 wins because we didn't know how long to bake the salmon for so it was a bit overcooked and dry coming out of the oven. The pan fried one was cooked pretty close to perfect!
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6/17/15: Seafood Wednesday #2
Seafood Wednesday #1 was successful, so we did it again and got more ambitious! Debbie and Jill joined us too! Debbie was the chef mastermind and master griller behind this time.
Option #1: Miso butter glaze
Option #2: Italian seasoning and olive oil
Grilling fun (and veggies too!)
Final (tasty) products that we ate:
It was pretty nice to hang out and cook a nice meal together after work. This should happen more often :)
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Seafood Wednesday #3: TBD!
6/10/15: Seafood Wednesday #1
I was also obsessing over sea beans at this point, so Jenn had to put up with trying many different preparations of fish with and without sea beans. Because we're engineers, we did a D.O.E. (Design of Experiment)
Options #1-3 are all baked in aluminum foil with lemon, salt, sea beans on top. #1 is with butter, #2 is with olive oil, and #3 was the control with no fat/oil. Guess which one turned out the best? OLIVE OIL!
Option #4 I made while we were waiting for #1-3 in the oven. I put some olive oil in the pan and put salt and pepper onto the fish and pan fried it.
----------------------------------------------------------
6/17/15: Seafood Wednesday #2
Seafood Wednesday #1 was successful, so we did it again and got more ambitious! Debbie and Jill joined us too! Debbie was the chef mastermind and master griller behind this time.
Option #1: Miso butter glaze
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Seafood Wednesday #3: TBD!
Delicious carrots [from 6/7/15]
The best part about the Sunday farmer's market in downtown Mountain View is the stand that has a sort out (ugly, overripe, bruised, imperfect vegetable) bin for 65 cents a pound! Lately there have been many carrots, zucchini, and cucumbers in the bin. So naturally I bought a lot of carrots, thinking I'd figure out what to do with them at home. We've since decided roasted carrots are the best type of carrot, especially with burrata and homemade pesto on top!
The recipe is from April Bloomfield's 'a girl and her greens' book, and available here:
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/roasted-carrots-carrot-top-pesto-burrata.aspx
I did not have any carrot tops or basil or walnuts or cheese, so I substituted Italian parsley and pistachio nuts. It was still ridiculously delicious that we've made it plenty of times since then!
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/roasted-carrots-carrot-top-pesto-burrata.aspx
I did not have any carrot tops or basil or walnuts or cheese, so I substituted Italian parsley and pistachio nuts. It was still ridiculously delicious that we've made it plenty of times since then!
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