Lately locally grown leeks have been available and at a good price, so I bought some. I like leeks, but don't really know what to do with them. So tonight I had a couple of leeks I wanted to cook. I chopped (or let the food processor chop) a couple of carrots and a couple of stalks of celery, and I half-moon sliced the leeks. I thought it might need something sweet and happened to have a couple of uncooked ears of yellow corn in the fridge. So I cut the kernels off the corn, heated some oil in a large skillet, and added the celery and carrot. When they were starting to soften I added a big knob of butter and the leeks and got some sage leaves, thyme, and tarragon from the garden and added them with some salt and pepper. When the leeks started to cook I added the corn and stirred everything for a while then added some white wine and reduced the heat, covered, and let it all simmer. It was delicious, I hope I remember to make it again next year.
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Have you tried the timeless classics?
Leek terrine:
Fresh French: Leek Terrine With Goat Cheese - Food Republic
Potato and leek soup:
Classic Potato Leek Soup - Skinnytaste
Leek terrine:
Fresh French: Leek Terrine With Goat Cheese - Food Republic
Potato and leek soup:
Classic Potato Leek Soup - Skinnytaste
We just performed our own 3 way "split lot" experiment to taste some different smoked Spanish paprikas, after reading reviews of several brands in the San Jose Mercury News.
To my surprise, we completely agreed with the SJMN reviewer: La Dalia was by far the best, with a deep smoky flavor surpassing the others by a wide margin. Spice Lab was good but not great, a sort of muted and diluted version of what we wanted. And Simply Organic was simply terrible. I am shocked to see that it won a taste competition held by America's Test Kitchen; we found it nearly flavorless and nearly odorless.
We decided the best way to taste the three paprikas was as a topping, sprinkled on deviled eggs (yum). In case those are called a different name in other countries, here's a standard recipe (with picture) used throughout the USA. For our paprika tests we omitted the tabasco pepper sauce.
The links above are to Amazon.com pages, because they include photos. All three of these paprikas are also available in many supermarkets, including the store 2 miles from our house.
To my surprise, we completely agreed with the SJMN reviewer: La Dalia was by far the best, with a deep smoky flavor surpassing the others by a wide margin. Spice Lab was good but not great, a sort of muted and diluted version of what we wanted. And Simply Organic was simply terrible. I am shocked to see that it won a taste competition held by America's Test Kitchen; we found it nearly flavorless and nearly odorless.
We decided the best way to taste the three paprikas was as a topping, sprinkled on deviled eggs (yum). In case those are called a different name in other countries, here's a standard recipe (with picture) used throughout the USA. For our paprika tests we omitted the tabasco pepper sauce.
The links above are to Amazon.com pages, because they include photos. All three of these paprikas are also available in many supermarkets, including the store 2 miles from our house.
Well, I guess if you want good Spanish smoked paprika, you buy the Spanish one. (And yes, that's a good one. La Chinata isn't bad either.)
So the other day SWMBO was out of town and at some farmer's market and they had locally grown tomatillos. She knows I love tomatillos, though not as much as I love her, so she bought a bag of them (maybe a pound or so? I didn't weigh them) for me. Now I do love me some tomatillos, but sort of like leeks I don't really know what to do with them except make salsa. So this afternoon I picked up a couple of poblano peppers, a couple of jalapenos, a couple of serranos (or what they call "hot red finger peppers" in the grocery store), and a sweet onion. Tonight I sparked up the charcoal grill and roasted all of those things. I kind of nestled the onion down among the coals while roasting the poblanos and the larger jalepeno, then moved those peppers to the warming tray while I put the smaller peppers and the tomatillos in a steel mesh pan and roasted them until the tomatillos were soft and a bit charred here and there.
I crushed 3 home-grown garlic cloves in my mortar and pestle with some coarse sea salt until it made a paste, then put the peppers, garlic, some fresh oregano from the garden, and the onion in the food processor and blitzed it for a bit, then added the roasted tomatillos and juice of a lime and processed it for a bit. I think maybe the tomatillos are not fully ripe because it tasted to me a bit too sour and salty. Luckily I had some roasted yellow corn that I had recently frozen, so added some of that and the sweetness of the corn offset the sour of the tomatillos and lime a bit.
I would post a picture but it looks like the contents of a diaper, though it tastes great. Saturday is going to be taco night (first in a long time) and the tomatillo salsa will feature prominently.
I crushed 3 home-grown garlic cloves in my mortar and pestle with some coarse sea salt until it made a paste, then put the peppers, garlic, some fresh oregano from the garden, and the onion in the food processor and blitzed it for a bit, then added the roasted tomatillos and juice of a lime and processed it for a bit. I think maybe the tomatillos are not fully ripe because it tasted to me a bit too sour and salty. Luckily I had some roasted yellow corn that I had recently frozen, so added some of that and the sweetness of the corn offset the sour of the tomatillos and lime a bit.
I would post a picture but it looks like the contents of a diaper, though it tastes great. Saturday is going to be taco night (first in a long time) and the tomatillo salsa will feature prominently.
The terrine looks like something I will never try; I can't explain why, it just doesn't look good to me.
Yes the classic leek and potato soup is something I must make some day. I don't make many soups, but I have a couple of ideas that might improve that one.
I think it's a great soup, there's something special about very basic, clean, flavours. I like my spices and we eat a fair bit of well-seasoned food, but it is a refreshing experience to go back to soups like that and get a full flavour experience with a minimum of ingredients.
Same with the terrine together with some goat cheese, or onion soup, mushrooms fried in a little butter on a slice of bread +++
Less is more.
Same with the terrine together with some goat cheese, or onion soup, mushrooms fried in a little butter on a slice of bread +++
Less is more.
In 88 we went to Crete for a late Spring holiday and after visiting Knossos we headed for Phaistos but had to spend the night at a little town on the way. Missing lunch we were very hungry and saw a bar was open.
The owner was completely out of it. He had a small chill counter with not much in it but he got some cucumber, garlic, some sausage and some bread and would not accept payment he also plied us with the same stuff that got him wasted namely - raki. We left there very mellow and managed to find a small hotel. I asked the owner if there were any barking dogs in the neighbourhood to keep me awake at night ( my partner could easily sleep through a bombing raid), no he said. He never mentioned the cockerill - that went on all night. By 3 in the morning I was prepared to go downstairs, ring it's neck and pay the owner compensation in the morning - both the raki and the cockerill left a strong memory.
with Martinique rum inside
That's pretty crepe if you ask me.
Like dipping your s'mores in brandy.
Nothing on the menu tonight so I might just have a befuddled and bedazzling nachos.
popcorn pea chips
olives
sweet peppers
hot peppers
dill cukes
scallions
mozza cheese
Dip: chili con carne. I took it out of the freezer a couple days ago and it's now thawed so I need to use it soon. That's when my mind started to wander.
popcorn pea chips
olives
sweet peppers
hot peppers
dill cukes
scallions
mozza cheese
Dip: chili con carne. I took it out of the freezer a couple days ago and it's now thawed so I need to use it soon. That's when my mind started to wander.
The first leaves have started to fall so it is time for chili. I make my own chili powder blend and never use any fillers in the chili but I like some chunks of poblano, onions, etc. so not truly competition style chili. I'm also not trying to impress anyone on the first bite so I shoot for a delayed whole mouth tingle rather than an upfront burn from white pepper.
Chili, sweet cornbread and oktoberfest beer make up the menu tonight.
Chili, sweet cornbread and oktoberfest beer make up the menu tonight.
I would have thought shooting for something tasty would be rather more important than the tingle?
Its all part of the experience of eating good chili. There needs to be a spicy hit and it should be all over your mouth rather than just back at the throat or up front. I like to have the flavor hit first then the tingle. In a competition (yes there is such a thing for chili) it is common to use white pepper to get a quick spicy hit. I don't really enjoy it that way.