Cooking Today

Tonight’s dinner was one of the most successful I’ve had in a while. It came together beautifully, based on the recipes from the CSA Newsletter, an off handed comment from Jennifer, and some effort. I didn’t think to take the pictures until we were halfway through eating– enjoy.

I planned to make some veggies with Dinner tonight– they don’t just cook themselves, you know! The CSA letter included a good sounding dish: Crimini Potato Puree with Root Melange. What’s tricky, is that this is basically two recipes– one for some tasty mashed potatoes, with the other as a big saute pan of tasty veggies.

What makes it work is the way you cook the other veggies. You saute the leek in a big skillet with some olive oil and run a parallel pot of boiling salted water. Each of the veggies are diced up small and tossed in the boiling water just long enough to turn tender. Then you fish out the veggie (with a slotted spoon] and toss in the next. The veggies you fished out are added to the saute pan, so they never get too overcooked.

Jennifer’s contribution was remembering the chicken in the fridge and suggesting that they’d be tasty with a simple bread crumb crust. I took her at her word and just cut the thighs off of the bone and removed the skin and fat, rubbed them in oil, crushed some bread crumbs on top of the thighs, and cut up the left over red onions and spread them across the top of the dish. 20 minutes at 350 and they were done.

I made this Olive Bread straight from the Bittman cookbook earlier today for lunch. It’s the Olive Oil and Salt Bread, with the diced olives he suggested as an option taken up. I was happy with it straight, but Jennifer liked dunking it in a little olive oil– or even better, with a little butter.

I began the day by cooking this White Cake and making the Butter Cream icing (both straight from Bittman). I made the cake with 4 eggs; it’s pleasant and dense. Next time I’ll probably try the 8 whites variation to see how much it fluffs up the cake.

The icing was disappointing; I suspect the last tablespoon of milk was a little too much– but the biggest problem came from the butter. The recipe called for softened butter, but I’d already used all of the butter in the fridge and off the countertop. I nuked some frozen butter to get it to “softened”, but it went too far and was half melted. I probably should have tossed the butter in the fridge at that point for a few minutes to congeal a bit more, but I pushed on. Unfortunately, the result is a tasty frosting that pools and slides, instead of whipping up stiff. Still, there’s nothing wrong with the taste…