SUCH A PRETTY VIEW. or something.
AND A TASTY LUNCH. I’m not sure why the salad had lentils in it. Vote no on salad lentils when steak is present.
Vote yes on chocolate soft serve with warm chocolate chip cookies mashed in.
Boulevard’s Lobster Paella
This weekend I made the lobster paella recipe out of the Boulevard cookbook.
The recipe has you cook the rice, lobster, shrimp and clams separately such that none are over or undercooked. The finished product was tasty, though the rice was almost overpowering and needed to be toned down by the lobster and shrimp (seems counter-intuitive). Additionally, the broth was more sweet than seafood flavored.
Things I’ll do differently next time (because, yes, there’s a next time):
– Use more shrimp, ideally with heads. Maybe skip all the lobster and just do shrimp
– Hoard lobster or crab shells ahead of time if possible
– Use less onion. Probably half an onion in the broth and half the leek (or maybe my leek was just too big). Also half an onion in the rice.
– Treat the clams and chorizo as a separate dish, though they made a delicious appetizer.
– Did differently this time: Didn’t cook the lobster tails in the broth until the last minute, or they’d be overcooked. Also, included the claws.
I forget how easy it is to make risotto. I should do it more often.
Ben’s Apple Waffles
2 apples, shredded with skin (Granny Smiths and Red Delicious work well)
1/2c butter (1 stick) melted
2c flour
1tbsp baking powder
2tsp sugar
1tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup of milk
1tsp vanilla
Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, with the apples. Then add all the wet ingredients.
Cooked in my waffle iron at heat setting 3, until the iron comes back up to temp.
Headspace: Day 1
Headspace is doing some promo at work, so I’m giving it a shot. I’ve never been good at meditating (or sitting still in any way, really) so I thought that 10 minutes a day sounded manageable and the program seems to have pretty good reviews online.
I tried to do day 1 last night, but promptly fell asleep. I suppose trying to meditate past midnight while sitting on your bed may not be a recipe for success. So I tried again this morning. The breathe in through you nose, out through your mouth part makes me sneeze, but it was an otherwise somewhat relaxing ten minutes.
We’ll see how goes over the next ten days… (It’s a 10 day starter program)
Deep Fried Poached Eggs
Jonny and I made these for dinner over the holidays. After a bit of science… What seemed easiest for us was the following: (I’m pretty bad at poaching eggs)
1. Sous vide the eggs to 62F for 45 minutes
2. Break the eggs into boiling water, poach for 1 minute, scoop out with a slotted spoon & pat dry with paper towels.
3. Dip into a beaten egg, then panko
4. Deep fry
The Boulevard cookbook, which was our rough guide, only poached the eggs… But we both proved to be incompetent at poaching eggs and lost a lot of whites. Also, we tried boiling the eggs in shell post-sous vide for a minute, but peeling turned out to be a big pain.
Carrot Pancakes
Adapted from the Food Network.
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (try this with some portion whole wheat)
4 tablespoons roughly chopped pecans
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch all spice
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup packed brown or granulated sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups finely grated carrots
Mix all the dry things (and carrots), and all the wet things, in different bowls. Then mix them together. Cook in a buttered pan over medium heat, flipping when bubbles appear, pop and don’t close up.
The Food Network version also has a cream cheese frosting. I didn’t make it and instead ate them with maple syrup. I liked them — not light an fluffy like the pancakes I usually make, but flavorful and hearty, with the pecans providing some variations in texture.
Update: These also work in the waffle iron! I added 1/4c more flour and they made great waffles. Might also work without the extra flour…
Also, advice from my dad on how to crisp bacon:
Salt Crusted Fish
1 fish (two small trout in this case) — skin on
lots of salt
1 egg white per cup of salt
Mix the egg white in the salt, put a half an inch layer on the baking sheet, put the fish down, bury in an even crust of salt. Bake for 15 minutes at 450F.
The skin protects the fish from being oversalted. I seasoned the fish with all the normal seasonings, but skipped the salt. The resulting fish was well salted.
Nutella Corn(flake) Krispie Treats
8 cups cornflakes
1 10.5oz bag of marshmallows
1/3c Nutella (or Nutella like stuff)
pinch of salt
6 tbsp butter
Melt the butter over the stove, then add the marshmallows and melt. When partially melted, add in the Nutella and salt.
When that’s all melted into one big sticky glob, pour it over the cornflakes and mix thoroughly. Pour into greased 8x8in pan, let cool.
The Nutella flavor ended up being pretty mild — I may try using more Nutella next time. Or actual Nutella instead of the Safeway brand substitute (they were out of the real thing). Also interesting was that the flavor ended up quite caramel-y, perhaps I’d cooked the mixture too long and it was starting to caramelize? Continue reading
Lunch & Pizza Dinner
Lunch at work! Dungeness crab with some stuff on the side. Resulted in crab shells in my keyboard.
And last night’s dinner! Used fresh pizza dough from Trader Joes — SO AWESOME. I never remember to make pizza dough 3 days ahead of time, and for $1.99, being able to buy dough is convenient. Numnumnum.
Breakfast at Camino
Poached eggs with black trumpet and king trumpet mushrooms, polenta and greens $12
I love polenta. I love mushrooms and I love greens, how could I go wrong?! (I didn’t.)
Stoneground oats with brown butter, maple syrup and almonds $7
I hate oatmeal, but this taught me that oatmeal drizzled in maple syrup and offset by the crunch of almonds isn’t half bad.
Sweet condiment plate: sheepsmilk ricotta, walnut butter, Barhi dates, and homemade Seville orange marmalade $6
Tasty things that go on tasty grilled bread. Nuff said.
Half a Dungeness crab grilled in the fireplace with grilled cauliflower and chile mayonnaise $16
Dad and I were puzzling about how you GRILL a crab without drying it out. Apparently the trick is to boil it in crab stock to parcook it, brush it with olive oil, then grill it. Magic! Fully cooked crab with a wonderful smokey aroma.
I love going to Camino for breakfast. Unlike Betty’s, they aren’t super-crowded super early. I can wander in at 10 or 10:30 and get seated easily. Second, it’s not your standard breakfast fare. Or at least, it doesn’t have to be. They do offer doughnuts, french toast and oatmeal, but also baked eggs, polenta and salads.