life interrupts, and some food porn

So yesterday was one of those days in which the more mundane parts of my life stand up and demand attention. It was oil delivery day, and the furnace ran out of fuel during the night. So I woke up to a cold house, more snow coming down, and I needed to go shovel. Wah. I trudged off grumbling, shoveled just the bare minimum required and came back to sit shiva while I waited for the oil guy. More grumbling ensued, and even some whining. I was COLD, and I wanted to be warm. The furnace also runs the hot water heater, so there was not even the possibility of a hot shower to ease my cold-inspired funk.

Eventually, I got up and started moving around. I cleaned out my closet and bagged up a bunch of stuff to donate to Goodwill. I sorted out dress shirts that have no chance of fitting me again this decade and set them aside for a couple of guys I know who might be able to use them. I turned on the oven to get a little heat in the house, then decided that making corn bread might be nice. Turns out it was nice, and I had a nice little slab of that with some reheated beef stew for my lunch.

Shortly after my delightful repast, the oil man came, delivered my 100 gallons and helped me to restart the furnace. My hands smelled of Number 2 fuel oil for the afternoon, but the heat was on, so I didn't care. I headed back out into the cold to shovel, secure in the knowledge that my humble abode would be warm(er) when I returned.

I got two places done and then it started to snow again in earnest. I gave up and came home. There is no sense trying to shovel when it's coming down like that, so now I am up at 0-dark-30 in the morning to get out there and get the church cleaned up in time for the kids to get to nursery school. But at least this morning, I am warm as I sit here.

So anyway, I got home last night chilled to the bone. I mean cold. Really cold. The kind of cold that can only be treated with a hot bath and/or some soup or chowder. Well, the hot water was still not entirely hot, and I lacked fish to make chowder, but I did manage to find some interesting things to make a supper. First, I found a pound of sweet Italian sausage meat in the freezer. I thawed it and crumbled it up to cook thusly:

When that was nearly done cooking, I cut up the last eight or nine baby bella mushrooms I had in the fridge and added them:

When they were softened and the sausage was thoroughly cooked, I drained everything, removed the meat and mushrooms and returned the rendered fat to the pan like so:

There was not a lot of fat, so I added a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and then added two cups of Arborio rice like this:

One of the tricks to making risotto is to cook the rice in oil with no other liquid for the first few minutes, until each grain is all shiny and beautiful and you begin to hear the grains go "crack! crack!" in the pan.

I added some chopped sweet onion to give it some depth of flavor:

And when that was cooked down just the tiniest bit, I added some chicken broth:

Yes, that is a name brand, and no, I don't usually use such fancy stuff. But this was on sale for like three bucks a case at Marden's, so I've got a ton of it in the house. The rice drank up that first can pretty quickly, and looked like this:

So I added another can and it looked like this:

When that cooked down some, I added the sausage and mushrooms back in:

I mixed it in and then added a can's worth of water to cook the rice some more:

Then I cooked it down some more, tasted it and found the rice still a little bit firm, so I added another can of water and cooked it until it looked like this:

At which point I took it off the heat, covered it and let it sit for ten minutes. All excess liquid was absorbed by the rice, and it was a thick, creamy, tasty bowl of wonderful at my table.

Oh, and here's the kind of rice I used. I got it at my regular grocery store.

And yes, getting the fancy kind of rice DOES make a difference. Regular rice just cooks down into a starchy paste. Arborio rice releases starch and sugars and becomes very creamy and smooth, and it makes a huge difference.

That's what I have for today. Perhaps more exploration in the spiritual realm tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

food porn

What you see above are Cheesy Sage Biscuits. They were (are) absolutely wonderful.

I got the recipe from my friend Louise over at Pam's House Blend, and she credits fellow blog barista Keori with the recipe

"Weary Outrage Biscuits"

Makes 9-12 biscuits depending on the size you make them

2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5-6 tbsp cold butter or margarine, cut into pieces
3/4 cup of milk
1 cup Parmesan cheese flakes
1 cup cheddar cheese crumbles
2 tbsp minced garlic, more or less as desired
1-2 tbsp rubbed sage (optional, to taste)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add butter, in pieces, to flour mix. Do not allow butter to melt. Mix butter into flour mix with fork until mix is dry and crumbly.

Add cheeses and sage, mix well. Add milk, mix well.

Add minced garlic. Do not add garlic to dry mix, or it will be quickly coated by flour and you will not see whether or not it is evenly distributed!

Mix dough until garlic and cheese is spread evenly throughout. Add flour with a coated hand until dough become elastic and can be removed from bowl. Move dough to floured surface, knead and roll out. Cut biscuits with a glass or biscuit cutter, place on greased cookie sheet.

Bake 9-11 minutes, until tops are golden brown.

split and grilled in the morning with a scrambled egg, some fried ham and a slice of cheese, that's the breakfast of champions, my friends!

Food porn

Have adapted a recipe I found on line for a thing I love made locally in Portland, Maine by one of my favorite sushi chefs.

The magical thing is called a Spicy Scallop Roll.

It involves the normal sheet of nori, rice spread out on it, and fish laid down and then rolled up, but in this instance, the fish is cooked.

The recipe I have here should make 6 to 8 normal sized rolls.

1 pound bay scallops (or you can use the big ones if you feel like spending the extra cash)
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon (or more) cayenne
1/4 teaspoon sri racha (or more to taste)

Clean and chop the scallops

Mix the mayo and the spices, and mix that into the scallops, tossing to make sure they are all coated.

Put them in a shallow pan and pop them min the broiler for five minutes or so until they are cooked and a little bubbly on top.

Remove from oven and allow to cool a little. Prepare your nori sheets with rice. Divide the scallops up and spread like you would a regular sushi roll, then roll up tight and cut into six or eight pieces. Plate the pieces and top with the extra bits of scallops that fell out the ends as you rolled it up.

There are six rolls in the above picture. The large circles in the middle are tuna rolls with avocado and the smaller circles at either end are the spicy scallop rolls. I rolled them, and it's a little tricky to roll large rolls of material that is chopped. Our friend M made the tuna rolls.

more food porn

Today was not nearly as miserable as yesterday. I still had to shovel some, but the sun was out, the wind was mild, and it was a much nicer day all around. The weather forecast calls for four days with no snow or rain, so I went to the lumber store and picked up some lumber for a project I am working on. That's a good feeling. Gonna fire up the compressor tomorrow and bang some high-speed nails. Yee-haw. Or whatever. It's gonna be cool, I know that.

So tonight I decided to use the nice little pieces of flounder I found at the store yesterday. Six fillets weighed just 1.25 pounds - just more than we need for dinner.

Now this is a recipe that has a history to it. In 1983, my grandmother died. It was my freshman year at college, and it left my aunt and I very much alone in the world, it seemed. I came home for the funeral and such, and then had an already planned weekend home a couple of weeks later. I came home for it and we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves. Not without Nana there. Fortunately, a friend brought over this dish with easy instructions and a recipe card attached. It is so easy that we immediately adopted it as a staple and still enjoy it to this day. It is light and elegant and takes less than a half-hour from start to finish.

Ingredients:
1 pound flounder or sole fillets (SERVES TWO! Add two fillets - or one half pound - per additional person)
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 box frozen broccoli spears, thawed
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
sliver the almonds if you were cheap and bought whole ones like I do


Line pan with foil and drizzle olive oil in the bottom

Lay the fillets in the pan, ugly side down and put the thawed broccoli on the fillets.


Sprinkle the slivered almonds onto the broccoli.


Fold the fillets over the broccoli and almonds.


Put in the oven for 10 minutes.

This is a good time to shred the cheese. I love these cheese graters - this is the sister one to the one I used last night to make soup. My aunt slices the cheddar to put on the fish, because, well, these graters used to be my grandmother's and now they're mine and my aunt can't for the life of her remember where she put hers..... ahem.


Remove fish from oven to discover that the fillets have UN-folded themselves. Bastards.


Try to fold the fish back over the broccoli (usually with limited success).


Turn the oven to BROIL.
Sprinkle the fish and broccoli with the cheese.


Put back in the oven, using one of the lower racks. (I used the next-to-the-bottom one. Cook for 5 minutes or until the cheese is lightly browned and bubbled.


Serve with rice pilaf or couscous.


Enjoy!