Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Thanks, Mary! I'll have to try it once those veggies come back into season.

Tonight Kris was at yoga, so I decided to experiment with a recipe from this month's Saveur, an Egyptian dish called Koshary (p.87). Mixed results. It turns out that the author already made several shortcuts from the authentic recipe. I added on top several of my own shortcuts because I'm lazy, and the result was edible but uninteresting. I think I could make a good dish out of this with some work, but not sure I'll put in the effort.

However, the dish did teach me that you can make really crispy fried onions if you dust them with flour before frying. That's a technique I'll use again!

It was just canned squash. Actually, it's just pumpkin pie made with squash and no crust. I started making them because I always had leftover pie filling. Last time I decided I liked the pudding as much or more than the pie and, unless I somehow need to make a pie, I'm skipping the crust from here on out. But it makes 7 little puddings.

When they're available, bake the custard in those little pumpkins. Works a treat and tasty to boot.

All,

Last night: split pea soup, hippy-made sourdough bread from Ashland OR spread with chevre (local market was having a sale on chevre).

Tonight: "Pasta Non-Carbornudum" (like Pasta Carbonara, only more healthful and vegetarian) using Malfandini pasta, and beets and beet greens cooked in balsamic vinegar.

Last night I was watching Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals on the telly and was totally inspired. He was doing something he called "dressing the board". He was making a giant steak sandwich (looked sooooo good) so he seasoned the steak and grilled it in a grill pan. While he was doing he made a quick salsa of chopped roasted peppers, parsley, chili peppers, balsamic and olive oil (think that's all). He spread this out on the cutting board and then let the cooked steak rest on top of the salsa. He sliced the steak and then rubbed it in all that stuff and put it all on a giant ciabatta.

I had none of that stuff, other than roasted peppers but I did have a pork tenderloin so I did this:

Butterflied the tenderloin and rubbed it with chili powder, cumin and cinnamon and then cooked it in the grill pan.
Made a salsa of roasted peppers, chipotle and orange peel and jarred salsa and some oil.

Did the rest/cut/rub deal.

Served it on a salad of baby romaine, red peppers, blood oranges (and any extra juice), green onions and sherry vinegar. I topped the salad with the pork and topped that with some corn tortillas I had cut into strips and fried. AND I was done in 30 minutes.

Mary

Mary
Amazing creativity on the fly....sounds wonderful. I love watching Jamie (we get his Jamie At Home series) but haven't seen his 30 Minute series yet. He does get the creative juices flowing.
ilene

This is the first time I saw the 30 minute show and it may be reruns. The British channels seem to be all over the place with their programming, I find a show I like and then never see it again. They did have 2 shows back to back last night. The other thing he did was a duck breast with 5 spice powder, toasted bread and rice pudding with poached fruits. I looked at the book quickly but the recipes seem to be written as if you are making the whole meal and I don't see myself doing that. He has some of the menus posted on his site.

Mary

Hi Mary
Do you remember what temp we cooked the whole fish in our cooking class? I want to bake one tonight (staying on topic) stuffed with herbs & of course I can't find the recipe.
Thanks
Kathy

I thought I just posted this but it didn't show up... sorry if I sent someone a pm by mistake.

1 whole fish, such as Sea Bass, or Red Snapper. Cleaned and scaled
1 fennel, cut into thick slices
1 medium onion, cut into thick slices
2 cloves garlic, smashed and inner germ taken out
¼ C parsley, rough chopped
2 slices lemon
3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
½ C Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste


METHOD:

Preheat oven to 375F/185C

Mix together the cut fennel, onion, garlic, parsley, thyme, and bay leaf with ¼ C olive oil. Set aside.

Season the fish with salt, pepper, and the rest of the olive oil on both the outside surface and the inside cavity.

Stuff the fish with the aromatics (fennel,onions,etc.) and also insert the slices of lemon.

Roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until when you insert a pairing knife near the backbone the meat is cooked through.

Mary

I don't think Jamie's 30 Minute Meals has hit the US yet. I bought K the cookbook from the series from amazon.uk - usually one of her Christmas presents is a cookbook (usually a Jamie cookbook) not yet available in the US. It's either in current run on BBC or has been within the past 6 months. The book was released in the UK at the end of September.