Happy V-Day

Whether you celebrate Van Halen-tine's Day or Gal-entines Day, the 14th of February is either a dreaded or anticipated day. And there's no better choice for emotional eating than chocolate! Whether you're lonely, loved, empowered, romantic, bitter, cornball, Marxist, or materialist you probably should be stuffing your face with some pink M&Ms (or locally made truffles) right about now. At our casa, we have much love for Thomas Keller (or TK as he is affectionately known both here and everywhere). My parents gifted me with Ad Hoc at Home, a cookbook that is both the most useful cookbook I've ever owned and the most ridiculously cumbersome and unwieldy 10 pound book that takes up all my countertop or coffee table space. So as we work our way through TK's exhaustive tome on all things family friendly, the Boy focused in on the roast chicken and while all I could envision were the lush, lush, lush brownies. We took both TK challenges on in one night -- and to great success (though with a downright nocturnal dining time).

Here is the brownie recipe which is really quite easy and delightful, though way too cakey to fall under the traditional definition of a brownie. (I think increasing brown sugar would make it chewier, probably knock down the flour amount too). Best served with ice cream, because it is hella rich. A great lesson in changing up your usual style with TK's advice on combining melted and room temperature butter instead of using softened. And I can't overemphasize how happy the purchase of dutch press cocoa has made me. Worth seeking out, chocoholics! Gonna try out Alton Brown's chocolate syrup recipe using it as soon as we re-up on the granulated sugar. Till then -- brownie sundaes with cherries on top for me and the Boy until we die! Happy V-Day!

King Cake

Usually, I can't really post on a holiday-centric recipe until after said holiday has passed. But this time, the fortunes of fate allowed the Saints to be in the Super Bowl (and win the Super Bowl). So we (and everyone who enjoys cooking football-watching snacks) decided to a Cajun-centric assortment of munchies. Anything to sway the football gods away from Peyton's cement block head. And what did Indianapolis ever give us anyway? I can't make 8 versions of breaded pork.

We really maximized our commitment to New Orleans by having Zapp's potato chips (in various flavors including Crawtator -- my fav), Abita and Dixie beers, andouille po' boys with homemade remoulade, muffulettas, Cajun wings (hey, we're still in Upstate NY), shrimp etouffee, pralines and King Cake. Quite a lot of food, most of which I'm still eating for lunch almost a week later. I may post recipes on some of the rest later, but the killer is shrimp etouffee, which is a secret family recipe from Alabama (or at least John's recipe to which I don't have access). The one good secret-y part is that you have to make your own shrimp broth with the shells. Making your own ingredients is always the secret to making things better (or at least take a lot longer).

So, back to Le Roi. It comes from Emeril but not from the Food Network (his own that site is very different and does the fruit and nut filling rather than cream cheese). I was thrilled with the results chiefly because yeast + any dessert + me = 98% chance of plutonium-grade failure. So you can make a cake that rises twice and has to be shaped and stuffed with a filling and even make the icing and color your own sugar too! Because if I can do it, so can you. And maybe you can top me by actually finding a tiny plastic baby. If you can't, use a pecan half like I did. Of course, then you may run the risk of cutting right through the pecan-- thus making a king and queen of Mardi Gras from one cake. Better than dissecting an icon of the baby Jesus I suppose. If you're not in the loop as to how or why a plastic baby is a necessary ingredient for your Mardi Gras celebrations, I suggest you go here and New Orleansify yourself.

Laissez les bons temps rouler and all o' that.

Unseasonable Eating

Hi folks! I know you've missed me. I'm going to jump over all the apologies and explanations and just say I'm going to make a concerted effort to post more around here. If for no other reason than it gives me a reason to be excited about cooking and dining out and arranging things artfully on a plate.

So winter is a little boring in the cooking department. For some reason I get tired of all the heavy stuff -- the stews, the chilis, the roasted vegetables, the red meat. So while I think seasonal eating is awesome when the market is stuffed full of fresh local fruit and vegetables, when it's just kale and parsnips I get a little bored. I was missing the lighter side of the palate so we fudged a little bit and used unseasonal (at least in this hemisphere) mangos and plantains to do a little Caribbean dinner. Pan seared haddock, rubbed in a Cajun blend of spices, atop cilantro brown rice, topped with mango salsa, with a side of fried plantain slices. I feel like a waitress in the Bahamas for just writing that out. I know, I know, it was extremely unfoodie and possibly unethical to construct a meal chiefly of things that were flown in 1,000 of miles but there is only so much "comfort food" one person can take.

I at least went enviromentally conscious on the wild haddock (red snapper would have been more in keeping with the theme but also more expensive since he doesn't live around here). Honestly I think tilapia would have worked better, but this worked well, despite a few bones that made me paranoid of choking to death.

Anyways, the mango salsa was my job mostly because it's super easy. Here's what I did: chop up 1 mango, half an onion, a big handful of fresh cilantro, half a tomato, and a 1/3rd of an anaheim pepper. Add olive oil, lime juice, and salt to taste, along with Sriracha for some heat. Some jicama and red onion and jalapenos are all good substitutions. And anything citrus is in season (in FL or CA anyway) so you can make your concessions there if your ethical code requires it.

The fish was rubbed with a blend of cayenne, cumin, black pepper, red pepper, whatever you want pepper, on the side that doesn't have the skin on it. Then pan seared about 4 minutes per side. You can finish it in the oven or broiler if you have a thicker fillet and don't want to dry it out.

Plantains: you get the almost black ones, slice them in half and remove the peel, and then slice them and fry them. That's it. Although I would probably have slice ours thinner because they can be dry and a little mealy (potato-like) if the chunks are too big.

The rice was cooked like rice is cooked (honestly that's not my field of expertise but you boil it in water, or so I've heard). Then when it was close to being done, the Boy drained the rice, dumped the water and finished cooking it in butter and chicken stock. He promises me that he only used 1 tablespoon of butter. I guess I believe him. So it's kinda like a risotto but kinda not. And then more cilantro was added in there because no meal can have too much cilantro especially when it's the middle of winter and it feels like centuries since you've seen sunlight or guacamole or your own forearms.