Cookerrific Weekend

After a somewhat dismal working Saturday, in which not much work got done, and a mediocre capellini carbonara with chard was made (note to self, for the second time - Jamie Oliver's carbonara recipe ends up too dry. Needs to be more saucy. Especially with high-surface-area pastas!), I went all out on Sunday.

We began with the tomatoes.

Rinse and cut in half, longways, 5 lbs Roma tomatoes. Simmer them for 10 min and cook them down gently for an hour and a half.

(During this time, we started the pork stock)

Run tomatoes through a food mill (THANKS MOM AND DAD!) to remove skins and seeds. Rinse the pot and add 1 1/4 cups olive oil (yes you heard that right. Remember, olive oil is healthy!). Add 3/4 c minced onion and cook till translucent, then add 3/4 cup tiny diced carrots. And celery if you can stand it; I cannot. After a minute add back the tomato puree and 5 tsp salt, and 3/4 tsp sugar. Stir, cook for 20 min.

Freeze for winter.

Pork Stock!

First, roast a pig. Or find roasted pig bones. We had leftover a side of ribs, the pelvis, and some other bones. Put these in your stockpot with a couple halved onions, skin on, a leek, halved, one huge carrot, split, a head of garlic, split, skin on, parsley stems, peppercorns, celery (if you can stand it), bay leaf. Cover with water and simmer for 4-5 hours. Skim. "I say again, skim." Then toss all your bones etc and strain the stock. Let cool and remove some of the fat. Freeze for winter, reserving 4 cups for....

Lima Bean Soup!

Cook 5-6 slices bacon till crispy, remove and crumble. Cook 3 leeks, split lengthwise and sliced fine, gently in the fat for 5-10 minutes, or until soft and pliant. Dump, unceremoniously, 1 pound fresh lima beans into the pot and add 4 cups pork stock or until beans are covered, plus a little more. Cook for 10-30 minutes or until lima beans are tender to your liking. Blend with a stick blender or with some other appliance until creamy. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with the bacon crumbles and snipped chives. So delicious, you will fight your dear spouse for the right to eat the last serving for lunch the next day. But you will win, because you made it.

I didn't forget dessert.

Salted-Butter Caramel Ice Cream.

Use David Lebowitz's recipe.

Watch sadly as the batter turns round and round in the mixer without freezing up.

Pour out batter and re-chill; set fridge and freezer to be colder in hopes of a better outcome on Tuesday.

Woo!

Just got my five-year multiple entry visa for Mali!

Now I just need to have reasons to go back after my next trip at the end of the month...

Labor Day Weekend

It ain't Labor Day without three separate trips to The Home Depot.

In the end, though, my office is painted a lovely blue, we got outside for a hike, and there was both barbecue and brunch. Pics soon!

Seltzer Yes

We picked up a Sodastream seltzer maker today. It works! Very easy to set up, and nice that it's no more complicated than necessary. It's clear that future versions will need some sort of biometric reader to deliver the exact level of bubbliness each inhabitant requires, but the current model has no buttons, LEDS, and doesn't even use electricity. In these uncertain times, it is comforting indeed to know that not even catastrophic infrastructure failure will prevent us from carbonating whatever water we've stockpiled in the basement.

p.s.: Anyone have a good idea what we should do with twelve soda syrup samples we'll never use? Reward for proposing the best idea is, of course,

twelve soda syrup samples.

Halibut in Coconut Curry

Josh's first day of school is today, so last night I was on dinner duty while he prepped. I've long been meaning to cook more fish - or really, just to cook ANY fish. Flipping through trusty Jamie Oliver, I came up with nothing great (all those roasting recipes might look better in the fall), but then I took out the Vij's cookbook my folks gave Josh for Christmas. There was an easy-looking halibut curry recipe. Sold.

I got the halibut at Whole Foods and Josh brought 19 million spices from Philadelphia, so we were all set, except for the curry leaves. Hm. Curry leaves. Supposedly one has to have a series of connections in Indian grocery stores in order to locate these curry leaves, when they are fresh, and go pick them up under cover of night, or first thing at 10am when the delivery truck shows up. Not an option at 7pm. So I fried some dry bay leaves instead and proceeded with the garlic, pureed onion, tomatoes and spices, simmering all the water out, and then added the coconut milk and water.

The halibut got panko'd and gently fried in a pan, which meant that then you get to do that thing they do in fancy restaurants, where they serve you the nice fish, and then pour the sauce over it in front of you.

Whole Foods also supplied some decent garlic naan and we used the rice cooker (definitely the appliance I was most skeptical about putting on the registry...and now use most often! Thanks Cristina!) and MAN O MAN was this dish delicious. The cayenne gave it a subtle heat and yes it was too salty, but perhaps only restaurant salty, and the coconut was not overpowering in any way but just there, unctuous, with the bright tomatoes and the tender flaky halibut, with some panko crunch to keep things interesting.

It was actually really delightful to cook for Josh. Whether this is tapping into some inner wifely self or just easier (sans kitchen tension when we are cooking together) remains to be seen.