Dandy Salad

Had delicious delicious no-knead bread, rolled in sesame and black onion seed with dandelion greens, fennel, and celery salad. Had a hard boiled egg with it for a smidge of protein on the side. The salad was good, but, my oh my. Every iteration of that bread recipe seems to get better and better.

Not much to either recipe, but it was a nice detox after all of the Boccalone Seth brought back with him from San Francisco. Last night, Chris made a pizza with fresh mozzarella, nduja and pepato. I sauteed some clams in garlic, white wine, shallots and parsley and made a white pizza. Cravings solved.

No-recipe Saturday

Pasta and broccoli was on the menu, but we wanted a little more. So, we searched the fridge and made an interesting sauteed honeyed radish and mustard greens dish to accompany some egg noodles with a lemony-peppery sauce. Delish!

After reading about some dark cocoa and sea salt brownies, I wanted brownies. Alas, we didn’t have enough butter to make anything. Dug up some puff pastry from the freezer. Combined some dark chocolate with orange zest and a few cherries from the freezer. Remarkably, it turned out decent enough to stand up to my craving! The leftovers might make faux-chocolate croissants in the morning. Not exactly healthy, but… I have farro on the menu for breakfast next week. Should even out, right?

Pantry items

Vanilla extract // http://www.marthastewart.com/article/vanilla-extract-how-to

This isn’t quite the recipe I use, but it’s the same principle.

Cherry vanilla bitters // http://www.chow.com/recipes/12040-cherry-vanilla-bitters

This goes in one of our favorite drinks with rye over rocks. Chris just dictated the recipe to me: 1/2 oz cherry-vanilla bitters 1/2 oz sweet vermouth, 2-3 oz rye ON ICE.

Sriracha // http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/homemade-sriracha-chile-sauce.html

First two are in regular rotation. I’m looking for an excuse to try making sriracha.

Also, there’s a recipe for tahini in this post // http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/04/grilling-baba-ghanoush-ganoush-eggplant-dip-recipe.html

Sabich

http://www.herbivoracious.com/2008/04/recipe-sabich-.html

On the roster for Saturday, possibly. Will have to see Mohammed for some pita..

Devils Chicken Thighs and Braised Leeks

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/02/devils-chicken-thighs-braised-leeks/

And no-knead bread to sop up the braised leeks. Looking forward to leeks from the farmers’ market once that starts up again.

As the original blogger puts it, repeatedly, this recipe is almost needlessly complicated. It did, however, yield a mighty tasty dinner. Chris couldn’t stop effusing about how wonderful it was. Top dollar. Filling and satisfying.

I’ll have to think of ways to take the principles of the recipe and simplify them. I also spent a good portion of the evening in tears, as just about every teary onion thing went into the meal. Leeks. Shallots. Onions. Okay, that was enough for my sensitive eyes.

Noodlr

The Noodlr is so much fun. It answers the question that is deceptively difficult: what to have with your noodles. Unless standing in front of an open fridge and grabbing things at will, I suffer an extreme lack of creativity when it comes to noodle-based dishes. This simple random suggestion generator (with vegetarian options) makes that a lot easier. My, though. This is dangerous to play before eating lunch.

http://noodlr.net/

Bison Tacos

No recipe. Picked up some ground bison at Gunpowder Bison. 

Cobb Salad

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/04/classic-cobb-salad/#more-6035

Grilled some chicken thighs for this on Sunday when the grill was hot. Skipped the blue cheese for the lactose intolerant among us and for the health of the lactose tolerant.

Verdict is: delicious. A good combination of flavors. A satisfying salad.

This isn’t my picture (it’s from the original blog), but.. just look at this! Ours looked rather similar.

Cookbooks

Talking to Monette, a famous eater and a maker-of-turkducken, I realized that I might as well make a list of cookbooks I’d like to try. This is not the most creative list, but I have this fear that the ones I want to try now will disappear from my memory in the future. Here’s a, hopefully temporary, resting spot for their memory.

In no particular order:

• Momofuku
• The Fat Duck Cookbook
• The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor
• Ad Hoc at Home
• Salt to Taste: The Key to Confident, Delicious Cooking
• How to Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking
• And, why not, The Piglet-winning Seven Fires

Oh, cilantro

Read this today, and might try to give the journal article a read. For now, this summary will haunt me and my love of cilantro.

http://news.curiouscook.com/2010/04/curious-cook-in-new-york-times-cilantro.html

“In the column I don’t mention the recent study from Reyes et al (last reference below), which reports that cilantro leaf extracts damage DNA, and therefore that cilantro could be a long-term health hazard. These are very preliminary findings and no reason for fans to give up cilantro, but it’s a subject worth following as more information comes in.”