Some pictures ...

[lorin]

I want to eat everything in this thread.........everything. Right now. I have to stop visiting this thread, I'm always hungry after I look at it.

[Vader]

Brilliant idea Menolly. Looks like a crêpe. :p

@ lorin - mission accomplished.

[Menolly]

Pretty much based on crepes I've had elsewhere, but so far I've just had no success with making crepes.

...not that I've attempted making them often.

[Savor Dam]

Ah. Not so much different from an omelet or a thin pancake. Will show you.

[Shaun das Schaf]

Menolly, you nearly made me sauté bananas this morning. I resisted and pan-fried homegrown cherry tomatoes instead. And Vader, you inspire me.

I haven't been doing much cooking lately - a mixture of sick and busy preventing it - but I did manage to make up some nice hummus today. Which reminds me, can anyone recommend a good food processor? My hummus was rather chunky in a blender that really only works with shakes.

[Vader]

Thank you, Shaun das Schaf. But I could do with some inspiration myself. I've been cooking lots of stupid stuff lately.

[Shaun das Schaf]

And what, pray tell, qualifies as 'stupid stuff'?

[Vader]

Anything I wouldn't order myself in a restaurant.

[Vader]

An older picture of "Schaschlik" I found again. Pork loin, bell peppers, smoked bacon and onions grilled on skewers.
Just seasoned with salt and pepper and served with a spicy kind of BBQ sauce.


Tortellini with creamy spinach-ricotta. I could claim Imade the pasta myself (which I actually do on special occasions) but I'm being honest.
It's Giovanni di Rama's brilliant fresh porcini tortellini.



Rip roast. It's from the cut we call "thick rip" and Americans would refer to as "spare rib/side". ("belly" in the UK).
That's my favourite cut for roasts, apart from blade shoulder or "spare rib roast" in the UK.
(These different cuts and names are so confusing. 0_o)




It's been blognese time again. Here's the soffritto, the heart of every Italian ragù.
In this case its celery, carrots, onions and pancetta dolce diced, and gently cook in olive oil and butter at low heat for 20-30 minutes.



The soffritto is ready now. As you can see there has been no roasting. It's all about gettingf the stuff tender and sweet (the starch in the vegetables turns into sugar)


The ground beef gets fried in butter and olive at high heat until crumbly and brown.


The beef, the soffritto, a bit of concentrated tomato purree, dry white wine (Soave classico) and beef stock. Sesoned with a bit of salt, pepper and sugar.


Time has worked its magic. 4 hours later we're getting there.

[Menolly]

Is there any milk or cream in your bolognese, Vader?

[Vader]

I add a dash milk towards the end of the cooking process.

[Vader]

An interesting brussel sprouts casserole with curry and cream.



Lemon-curry rice



Spaghetti alla carbonara - another Italian classic.



Moussaka - the Greek answer to lasagne, only with eggplant and potato slices instead of pasta sheets.



Mixed antipasti



Cooking the winter away. My versionof a light primavera.

[Lady Revel]

Oh, that looks so incredibly luscious. *rubs tummy*

[Vader]

Ossobucco alla milanese - another of these Italian classic stews impossible for me to resist.


I may repeat myself, but no Italian stew without a proper „soffritto“. Onions, carrots and celery finely chopped and sweated in olive oil and butter.


We also need some beef stock, dry white wine, bay leaves, thyme and concentrated tomato purree.


Veal shanks cut in slices. I actually wanted them to be around 2 inches thick but they only cut them like 1 inch. Still worked pretty fine.


The meat gets salted, peppered and dusted with a bit of plain flour.


After frying the meat for a while (until slightly golden) I put it aside and roast the tomato puree in the same pan and deglace with the white wine.


The soffritto, the wine-tomato jus, the herbs, stock and meat all go in the watered clay pot.


Into the cold oven, temperature set at 300F (150°C) or lower and forget about it for at least 1,5 hours.


After 2 hours we’re getting somewhere.


Now comes “gremolata” – a mix of chopped parsley, chopped garlic and grated lemon cest. Put it back in the oven for another few minutes.
The meat will be all tender now, you could eat it with a spoon. Serve with polenta or risotto.

[Menolly]

I made a similar recipe, only using lamb shanks which were on sale, for first night seder this year. And since I don't have a Romertopf, I cooked it in the crock pot the day before, and then gently reheated for seder.

I love the gremolata on top.

[Savor Dam]

Confirming that Menolly did an ossobuco interpretation of lamb shanks for the first night of Pesach. She applied no name to her carrot, onion, celery base; I called it mirepoix, you call it sofrito. Since I worked that day, I am not sure how much the process parallelled or differed...but there was definitely gremolata at the end and the resulting product was very good once we finally finished the pre-meal haggadah portion.

[Vader]

As far as a understand Italian soffritto (which is not the same as Spanish "sofrito") is basically like mirepoix, only the vegetables are being diced much smaller.

I am sure lamb shanks will give an even richer taste to that dish. Since the family is not very fond of lamb (and since my butcher had veal shanks, which does not occur often) I grabbed the opportunity to make it this way.

[Menolly]

Somehow I missed the March 4th set of photos. The brussel sprouts casserole looks amazing!

Could you please post the receipt for it, Vader? Any chance frozen brussel sprouts would work in it?

[Vader]

Phew - I pretty much made it up as I went along (I should start writing down things).

It all started when Mrs. Vader mentioned my meals where getting ... repetitive. So I asked her what she wanted to have and her answer was like "Well, I don't know ... something different ... why not a … a … hm … Brussels sprout casserole … or something". So I said "Yeah, why not" and went shopping.

After cleaning and removing the outer leaves and cutting away the thick parts of the stems I steamed the Brussels sprouts until almost done. I prefer steaming vegetables because In my opinion cooking them kills part of the flavor. Frozen Brussles sprouts will work just fine.

Sweat a bit of chopped onions and bacon in butter, add a bit of mild curry powder (I make my own), let it sweat some more (be careful not to burn the curry or it will get bitter).

Put curry-bacon-onion mix in a deep dish together with the Brussels sprouts and add some dry toasted pine nuts. If you can't get pine nuts, don't bother. Unsalted cashew nuts will work as well. Or leave out nuts completely. I just added them for texture.

Mix a cup of cream, one or two tablespoons of crème fraîche (or sour cream), an egg, salt, pepper, a hint of nutmeg and cayenne and 1/2lb of grated cheese (I used parmesan) and add to the casserole.

Stir a bit to make flavors blend.

Put in the oven (375F/190°C) for 20 minutes or until the cream has coagulated (?term?) and the dish looks slightly golden brown.

[aliantha]

"Thickened" is the term you're after, I think.