01.10.10
Posted in Cooking, Fun, Too Much TV at 8:55 pm by Beau
FoodNetwork’s newest show and now one of my favorite? The Best Thing I Ever Ate. It’s the network’s hosts and other well-known chefs talking about their favorite foods in various categories like breakfast, BBQ, and desserts. Whether or not these are actually their favorites is beside the point because it is an introduction to decadent, amazing foods around the US. I’m busy trying to track down recipes (especially for that Stuffed French Toast recipe, stuffed with banana’s and peanut butter) and making reminders for the cities that appear on the show in case I end up getting client work and have a reason to travel there.
All of this after we get back from the Big Gay Cruise 2: Beau and Jeff Go Down (Under)
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10.01.09
Posted in Cooking, Home Life at 8:49 am by Beau
Fall for me starts off with the first chilly weekend that calls for making a big pot of Roasted Garlic Soup. I’ve posted the recipe on the blog several times but thought I’d do so again because it’s so good that it just has to be shared.
Roasted Garlic Soup (recipe via ‘Country Living’ Jan. 2002)
8 servings
2 lg. garlic heads, plus 1 clove minced
3 tbls. Olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 tbls unsalted butter
2 cups minced onion
1 cup minced carrots
1 lg. potato peeled (1 ¼ cups) and cubed
4 cups chicken stock
½ cup dry white wine
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ cup heavy cream
1. Roast the garlic: Preheat oven to 350oF. Using a serrated knife, cut the top off each garlic head so that the tip of each clove is exposed. Place the garlic heads on a large piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with 2 tbls. Olive oil. Add the bay leaves and fold the foil to form a packet. Place the packet in the oven and bake at 375oF for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool until able to handle. In a small bowl, squeeze the garlic head until all of the roasted flesh is released. Discard outer husks and bay leaves.
2. Make the soup: In a large heavy duty saucepan, heat the remaining olive oil and butter, add onions and cook over medium heat until translucent – about 4 minutes. Add the carrots and continue to cook for 5 minutes more. Add the minced garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the potato, chicken stock, white wine, roasted garlic, salt, and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook for 35 minutes.
3. Finishing the soup: Using a blender or stick blender, puree the soup in small batches until smooth. Return the soup to the saucepan if using a blender over medium heat and whisk in the heavy cream. Heat until warmed. Do not boil. Keep warm until ready to serve
Suggestions: I like a lot of garlic so I always double the amount I use for the single recipe. Same for the onions. I’ve used a sweet potato in place of a regular potato before with great results though others have said it makes the soup too sweet with the carrots. I’ve also used a red wine instead of white when that was all I had on hand. Get a stick-blender! You need to pour this scalding soup into a blender like you need genitals on your face.
Garlic cook time: 45 mins. (Soup prep time: 15 mins)
Soup cook time: 55 minutes
Total Time: 1:40 minutes
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01.12.09
Posted in Cooking, Fun at 10:36 pm by Beau
Having dinner at our place means trying new things and new experience.
The Appetizer, January 2009 (Quicktime, 14MB)
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07.06.08
Posted in Cooking, Home Life, The garden at 2:39 pm by Beau
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12.28.06
Posted in Cooking at 12:27 pm by Beau
I was completely correct. With enough butter, cream, and cheese, anything can be made edible (I’m still sticking with hot poo, in that assumption). Case in point, last night the side I served along Nigella’s one-pan of sage-onion chicken and sausages (which will serve 27 large, fat lumberjacks, just FYI) was cauliflower which I’ve never made before and don’t ever eat. But Ina’s Cauliflower Gratin sounded good so I bought a head and doused it with enough cream, butter, cheese, and pepper to actually make it palatable.
Tonight’s fare for one: Pork Chops done in the slow-cooker with onions and dressing. Of course this recipe serves 6 also but as I was informed several weeks ago at someone’s dinner party, “well, you can’t ever serve pork at a dinner party, it’s just not polite.”, I’ll be eating alone since I don’t want to appear impolite and offend anyone with pork.
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12.26.06
Posted in Cooking at 6:19 pm by Beau
OK. J.Go and Max both dissuaded me off fennel last year. But the power of Food TV and specifically, Ina Garten, have over the last year persuaded me that I should give it a whirl. I trust the boys implicitly, but I can’t argue with an amazing white dish filled with creamy something or other and what the hell, if it was inedible, they they were right as rain and all is ok.
So I got the fennel this weekend, found some Gruyere and whipped out a dish of potato-fennel gratin tonight.
OMG. I know what was in the dish because I shredded the cheese and sliced up the potatoes, onions, and fennel, but seriously, it was like CRACK. I skipped everything else for dinner and just ate the gratin. And when I tell you I was eating it out of the dish, standing over the stove, that is not a lie. It was just that good.
So of course I realize that with enough cream, butter, and cheese, one could make a steaming turd into dinner party fare, but this gratin just flipped me into something else all together.
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Posted in Cooking at 6:19 pm by Beau
OK. J.Go and Max both dissuaded me off fennel last year. But the power of Food TV and specifically, Ina Garten, have over the last year persuaded me that I should give it a whirl. I trust the boys implicitly, but I can’t argue with an amazing white dish filled with creamy something or other and what the hell, if it was inedible, they they were right as rain and all is ok.
So I got the fennel this weekend, found some Gruyere and whipped out a dish of potato-fennel gratin tonight.
OMG. I know what was in the dish because I shredded the cheese and sliced up the potatoes, onions, and fennel, but seriously, it was like CRACK. I skipped everything else for dinner and just ate the gratin. And when I tell you I was eating it out of the dish, standing over the stove, that is not a lie. It was just that good.
So of course I realize that with enough cream, butter, and cheese, one could make a steaming turd into dinner party fare, but this gratin just flipped me into something else all together.
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12.10.06
Posted in Cooking at 3:02 pm by Beau
All my cooking endeavors, certainly those in the past year, have been noble attempts but yet I felt I was missing something essential. I’d watch the shows on TV and then make them dutifully using the recipes as supplied but still, I was left with a, “this could be better?” feeling.
Enter the Rachael Ray 5-quart Oval Saute pan. I know that everyone who cooks needs their own correct pans and skillets for whatever they do and I’m enough of a worrier that I’m particularly high strung if I’m using a pan that might not be the right one. I also know that most people who cook have too much cookware they never use, me included. But I’ve watched RR enough to know that she can just about do anything in this oval pan and now that I found one, I’m gettin’ it.
It isn’t right to be this excited about a pan. Not at all.
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10.08.06
Posted in Cooking at 7:49 pm by Beau
I officially celebrated the start of Autumn this weekend. It wasn’t by driving upstate to see the foliage (though we did and it was gorgeous), and it wasn’t by planting all my spring bulbs (though I did). It was because the autumnal cooking season has been offically started by the ceremonial cooking and eating of Roasted Garlic Soup, the most autumnal thing I know and love to make.
A few words about the recipe. I automatically double it from the start. It’s worth it for the leftovers and to share with others so just do it.
I love garlic. The recipe calls for roasting two heads which is crazy. Even when I double the recipe, I still roast eight heads of garlic and use every bit of it. It suits the soup just fine so don’t be afraid. Also, you could roast and use almost any kind of harvest vegetable that suits. The all will change the flavor a bit, but I can only imagine in the best ways possible while making it your very own thing.
Get a stick-mixer. Period. Pouring any hot soup into a blender is fucking CRAZY shit.
Enjoy the Autumn:
Roasted Garlic Soup (recipe via ‘Country Living’ Jan. 2002)
8 servings
2 lg. garlic heads, plus 1 clove minced
3 tbls. Olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 tbls unsalted butter
2 cups minced onion
1 cup minced carrots
1 lg. potato (or sweet potato) peeled (1 ¼ cups) and cubed
4 cups chicken stock
½ cup dry white wine
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ cup heavy cream
1. Roast the garlic: Preheat oven to 350oF. Using a serrated knife, cut the top off each garlic head so that the tip of each clove is exposed. Place the garlic heads on a large piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with 2 tbls. Olive oil. Add the bay leaves and fold the foil to form a packet. Place the packet in the oven and bake at 375oF for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool until able to handle. In a small bowl, squeeze the garlic head until all of the roasted flesh is released. Discard outer husks and bay leaves.
2. Make the soup: In a large heavy duty saucepan, heat the remaining olive oil and butter, add onions and cook over medium heat until translucent – about 4 minutes. Add the carrots and continue to cook for 5 minutes more. Add the minced garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the potato, chicken stock, white wine, roasted garlic, salt, and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook for 35 minutes.
3. Finishing the soup: Using a blender or stick blender, puree the soup in small batches until smooth. Return the soup to the saucepan if using a blender over medium heat and whisk in the heavy cream. Heat until warmed. Do not boil. Keep warm until ready to serve
Suggestions: I like a lot of garlic so I always double the amount I use for the single recipe. Same for the onions. I’ve used a sweet potato in place of a regular potato before with great results. I’ve also used a red wine instead of white when that was all I had on hand. Get a stick-blender! You need to pour this scalding soup into a blender like you need genitals on your face.
Garlic cook time: 45 mins. (Soup prep time: 15 mins)
Soup cook time: 55 minutes
Total Time: 1:40 minutes
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06.25.06
Posted in Cooking at 11:46 am by Beau
When Jeff is out of town, such as he was this weekend, I’m left to my own devices meaning I get to cook whatever I want, just for me. Since Jeff is not a fish-lover, I picked up a couple Red Snapper fillets on Friday and following Ms. Ray, produced a rather nice late night dinner for myself. Unremarkable in and of itself except that I’ve never made fish before. I’d admit the caper and white wine sause wasn’t exactly top quality…too many flavors that stood out instead of blending, but the fish was cooked and it wasn’t difficult so it’s a winner.
On Saturday, I jumped from Rachel to Giada Di Laurentis’s Italian Picnic. I have sort of a love/hate thing with Giada. She’s amazingly beautiful, her cooking is so easy-looking and relaxed, but she’s got this italian thing when she speaks that sort of disrupts the whole image for me. That being said, the recipe for the Caponata Sandwiches sounded too good to be true so I whipped up a batch yesterday and it was awesome. Full of flavor, sweet and sour, it has it all.
I’ve been trying to expand my cocktail experiences and started looking for my summer drink, other than strong white wine. While in Boston last week having drinks with Ron, I discovered that I love a good gin and tonic. Cool and refreshing, it is perfect for me. Then along came the NYTimes article on their summer cocktail contest winner, The Cuke, which is a horrible name but a compelling recipe. I whipped up a batch of them last night and they were awesome. I’m not sure if I’d make them for just myself, but having friends over (Nick and Steve gave them thumbs up last night, too), I’d throw a pitcher of them together and share.
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