prosciutto arugula pizza with homemade bread machine dough
Posted by the Blind Cook in cuisine Italian, For the Cook, Pork, Tips & techniques, VegetablesFeb 10th, 2012 | No Comments
To be extra cheesy, either shape your pizza into a heart shape. Or just add more mozzarella and parmesan. Hyuk hyuk.
Now that I’m thirty-something and have a permanent Valentine, Valentine’s Day has turned into a consumer-driven joke of a holiday. It’s not even really a holiday. We all still have to go to work on Tuesday. Double-lame.
I realize this post is sounding cynical. But in reality, I feel like every day should celebrate those we love. Not just spouses and significant others but parents, cousins, friends, and pets. Why should it be just one day a year that we do something nice for those we love? Indeed, Valentine’s Day exists only to make Americans waste their money on bouquets and stuffed bears and to make the singles feel worse. Bah humbug.
People ask me what my husband and I are doing for V-Day. A few years ago, I enjoyed going out to a nice restaurant. Then it would be just going out to any restaurant and engaging in the act of conversation and communion together. This year, I just want to cook a meal at home with my hubby.
Last time, I gave you lamb chops. But if you’re not that fancy food kind of person, here’s a less expensive yet just as tasty alternative. What is more romantic than Italian food? Ever since we bought a bread machine, we’ve enjoyed making our own pizza dough at home. The possibilities are endless for pizza—you can virtually top it with anything you see lying around in your fridge. That’s the beauty of it. Lately, my favorite toppings for homemade pizza are prosciutto, arugula, and fresh mozzarella. After our pie at San Francisco’s Pizzeria Delfina, I became a fan of arugula. I used to dislike this leafy green because of its bitterness, but now I find the dry taste a good balance to richer, fattier foods (like prosciutto). Maybe I’m all growns up now. **Tear**
If you get the right fresh ingredients, this simple pizza will blow you away. So go ahead, score some points with your Valentine by way of the stomach. Or if you’re single, indulge yourself. If the Blind can Cook it, so can you. Buon appetito!
smashed purple potatoes
Posted by the Blind Cook in cuisine American, For the Cook, Sides & salads, Tips & techniques, Travel eats, VegetablesJan 17th, 2012 | No Comments
Smashingly delicious.
Indeed I found them in the potato section of H-E-B, and John kindly reminded me that he’d suggested I try these purple potatoes long ago but that I was initially repulsed by the idea of my spuds looking like Barney. Alas, I’ve changed my mind.
I was so enamored with purple potatoes that I wrote a Ingredient of the Week post for Eating Our Words, and now I present to you a simple yet delicious method for preparing these smashingly good smashed purple potatoes. Remember, if the Blind can Cook it, so can you.
fight that flu
Posted by the Blind Cook in Beverages, For the Eater, Medical advances, Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO), Pasta, rice & noodles, Poultry, Soups & stews, Tips & techniques, VegetablesDec 16th, 2011 | No CommentsIt’s that time of the year again. You want to enjoy the chilly weather, the Noel season, the gatherings with loved ones, hot chocolate, eggnog, hot pot, turkeys and hams and pot roasts what have you. But what ends up happening is you’re lying in bed next to Death, shivering and sweaty and feverish and pissed. Why is it that the flu is so common during colder weather? My mama used to always warn me if I didn’t wear my jacket and gloves and thermals, I’d get sick. But I’ve heard that being cold is not the culprit—it’s the cold weather driving everyone closer together in a huddle which thereby spreads germs much more quickly and easily. Does anyone know if that’s true?
Either way, cold weather equates to more people coughing and sneezing and getting the flu. Earlier this year at the tail end of flu season, I wrote an article for Houston Press about which things we can ingest or imbibe to fight the flu. I thought it would be fitting to link to the article now that it’s season again.
Despite my compromised immune system from the Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) and Rituxan treatments, my neurologist told me to get the flu shot this year, saying the benefits outweigh the risks. (I got mine at CVS for $30. You can get them at most pharmacies or at your doctor’s office. Most health insurance policies will cover the flu shot, too, so what’s there to lose?) Good thing because my husband has been sick twice this season already. I hope you can avoid the flu this year, but in the case that it catches you, read my post entitled ”What to Feed That Flu”, and you should be back on your feet in no time. Say “hi-yah!” Miss Piggy-style to that virus.
how to keep your garden alive during drought
Posted by the Blind Cook in For the Cook, For the Eater, The urban garden, Tips & techniques, VegetablesSep 5th, 2011 | No CommentsThe last time I posted an urban garden update, it was before Houston hit its hottest time of year–that is, the month of August. This year’s summer has had record-breaking heat, record-breaking lack of rain. For every single day in August (and I’m not even exaggerating), we had highs above 100, and I can only recall one morning when it sprinkled. You can imagine how desert-like our city has become.
The drought and extreme heat have not left our garden very viable. In fact, the only thing that seems to be thriving is our Thai basil which, I guess, thinks it’s back at home with this climate. Most everything else has withered like a great-grandma’s toes. I recently wrote a piece for Eating Our Words about what we can do to drought-proof our urban gardens (or at least make it drought-resistant). Got any tips on how to protect your crops from this crazy weather? Help us turn our brown thumbs green, and share the knowledge. Click on the link below to read my Houston Press post.
6-month urban garden update
Posted by the Blind Cook in For the Cook, For the Eater, The urban garden, Tips & techniques, VegetablesJun 14th, 2011 | 4 Comments
It’s been six months since we planted the first of our urban garden. Since then, we’ve expanded a little; the backyard is now home to all the original herbs–rosemary, parsley, thyme, cilantro, and oregano–in addition to the original broccoli heads. In February, we purchased lemon and lime trees, roma tomato plants, Italian basil, and Thai basil. We had to show up bright and early at the nursery and elbow all the old people out of the way to get to the tomatoes and basil–those things sell like hotcakes. We were happy to get our hands on some but ended up destroying so many of them anyway. So here are the lessons learned during the first six months of our brown-thumb urban gardening.
TOP 5 BROWN-THUMB LESSONS LEARNED IN THE FIRST SIX MONTHS
- Lesson #5: Don’t plant your lemon and lime trees in terracotta pots. Terracotta clay is too hot for the heat of Houston summers and will likely burn the roots of your trees. We learned this only after we already bought the terracotta pots and planted our dwarf lemon and lime trees in them. All other pots were either ugly or too expensive so we left our trees in them with the hopes that excessive watering will keep the roots cool. (Who said trees can’t be fashionable?) Too bad we are probably not watering them as often as we should. The curse of a lazy gardener.
- Lesson #4: Give your tomatoes plenty of room because those suckers are wild. The roma tomatoes were rampant which you think would be a good thing, but we used weak bamboo sticks to hold up the vines a la zip ties, and the result is a crazy looking mess. Better to buy tomato cages and give the tomatoes plenty of space. We planted our Thai and Italian basil too close to the tomatoes, and now the crazy tomato vines have overshadowed the basil and stunted their growth.
- Lesson #3: Make sure you use the right ratio of soil-to-fertilizer for each plant. In other words, check the chemical levels of the soil and fertilizer used because different plants require different ratios. The Black Kow fertilizer was fine for the herbs but virtually burnt our tomatoes. The tomato plant bore scores of little tomatoes but they all had burnt black bottoms, a result of too much nitrogen in their diet, I believe. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
- Lesson #2: Watch your dogs very carefully. My delinquent dogs have been eating all my Thai basil. I didn’t even know until I smelled it all over their breath. Why couldn’t you dogs at least eat the parsley which is better for your breath and more plentiful anyway? I haven’t even had a taste of my Thai basil because they’ve all gone in my dogs’s tummies! And to think I blamed it all on the crazy tomatoes.
- Lesson #1: Don’t be lazy about watering. The problem with the Houston heat is it truly makes one lazy. It’s so hot and humid outside–we’ve already hit a record-breaking 100 degrees the first week of June!–that nobody ever wants to venture outside. The downside is our plants are also dying of thirst. The broccoli is probably having a heat stroke right now as I type this. To combat our weariness, my husband rigged a homemade irrigation system: he made a rain water collector out of a garbage can and some piping which he attached to a porous hose that seeps water out through its gauze-like exterior. He also bought a water timer so now promptly at 7:30 CDT every other day, the garden gets a drink.
John is already talking about building another garden bed–the Beta Bed, it would be called. This garden bed would be built from scratch (rather than from the Costco kit) so that exact dimensions are achieved at a fraction of the cost. In this Beta Bed, we will employ all of our lessons learned in the first six months of urban gardening and try our hand at bettering our brown thumbs–maybe they can become beige. We’ll use the correct dirt, give plants enough space, use an efficient crop rotation. Check back later for more updates.
tuscan potato soup
Posted by the Blind Cook in cuisine Italian, For the Cook, Soups & stews, VegetablesMay 30th, 2011 | No Comments
Missing the kale. Boo.
The second course of the Italian birthday dinner was this Tuscan potato soup which is very similar to Olive Garden‘s bottomless potato soup. I found the copycat recipe online years ago and have been making it since. It’s a little spicy (which you don’t expect), and the blend of vegetables, meat, and the creamyb chicken broth all make for a flavorful soup. Because it’s not too thick, it’s not super filling, and thus makes a proper second course for a four-course meal. But because it’s creamy, it’s still hearty enough to please the palate.
The kale adds a little texture and color to the soup but my husband had picked out the wrong kale at the grocery store–I needed the curly, leafy kind but he chose one that tasted like straight-up grass and dirt. Who knew there was more than one kind of kale? So sorry, but this phohto doesn’t have the green kale. And remember, if the Blind can Cook it, so can you.
Recipe: Tuscan Potato Soup
Summary: A knock-off of Olive Garden’s soup
Ingredients
- 3 (14 oz.) cans chicken broth
- 9 c. water
- 3 to 5 slices bacon, chopped
- 1 lb. Italian sausage, loosely grounded
- 4 lg. red potatoes, unpeeled and thinly sliced
- 1 lg. white onion, finely chopped
- 3 to 5 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 2/3 c. half-and-half
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tbsp. ground black pepper
- 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 2 c. chopped kale leaves
Instructions
- In a lg. stockpot, combine water, chicken broth, salt, and potatoes. Set to a low boil.
- In a separate pan, fry up bacon until slightly crispy. Set bacon aside, saving the grease in the pan.
- In the same pan used to cook the bacon, add the Italian sausage, onion, and olive oil. Simmer on low until sausage is cooked through, stirring occasionally.
- Add bacon and sausage mixture into the soup pot. Mix the garlic, cayenne pepper, and half-and-half into the soup pot. Cover and simmer on low for 30 min.
- Five min. before serving, stir in the chopped kale leaves.
Variations
I used turkey bacon and Italian turkey sausage for a slightly healthier option. (And also because my husband doesn’t eat pork.)
Cooking time (duration): 60
Meal type: dinner
Culinary tradition: Italian
Microformatting by hRecipe.
bruschetta
Posted by the Blind Cook in Appetizers, snacks & hors d'oeuvres, cuisine Italian, For the Cook, The urban garden, VegetablesMay 23rd, 2011 | 1 Comment
Voila! Classico antipasto italiano.
A classic antipasto italiano–Italian Appetizer–is bruschetta, pronounced with a short “u” as in “brush” and a hard “ch” sound like a “k” as in “basket”. Many Americans incorrectly use a long “u” and a soft “shh” sound, and while this is acceptable in most English speaking countries, I like to use the authentic Italian version, complete with rolling R’s and gusto.
Now that we’ve got the pronunciation stuff out of the way, let’s move on to the dish itself. I recently hosted another birthday dinner for friends Joy, Joanna, Heari, and Teresa. Their birthdays stretched way back from February and into the future to May; everyone’s lives had just been too busy for us to coordinate dates. But finally, during a recent Saturday evening, we found ourselves seated around my farmhouse table sharing a meal together.
I decided to go with A Night in Tuscany as the theme since they all enjoy those ever-so-reputedly-bad-for-you carbs. For the first course of the four-course meal, I made this classic bruschetta dish. It turned out yummy; the red onion added a sweet yet pungent kick to each bite. I used Genovese basil fresh from our garden and a saltier, French butter on the baguette slices before baking. The creamy richness of the butter (which my dad bought for us from a Vietnamese grocery store) added an extra oomph to the bruschetta. Perfection in every bite. If the Blind can Cook it, so can you.
Recipe: Bruschetta
Summary: Original recipe courtesy of my friend Karen
Ingredients
- 4 roma tomatoes, diced & strained
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
- minced garlic (optional)
- extra virgin olive oil to taste
- balsamic vinegar to taste
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 baguette, sliced into 3/4″ slices
- melted butter
- 1/8 c. grated parmesan cheese (optional)
Instructions
- In a med. bowl, combine tomatoes, onion, and basil. Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Toss well and set aside.
- Meanwhile, spread butter on each baguette slice. Bake at approx. 350 degrees for 3 to 5 min. or until butter is melted and bread is lightly toasted.
- Top with tomato onion mixture. Add parmesan cheese on top if desired.
Variations
You can add minced fresh garlic to the tomato and onion mixture if desired. Italian food is known for the garlic, after all.
Cooking time (duration): 20
Diet type: Vegetarian
Meal type: hors d’oerves
Culinary tradition: Italian
Microformatting by hRecipe.
cajun crawfish boil
Posted by the Blind Cook in cuisine Southern, For the Cook, Seafood, Tips & techniques, VegetablesMar 28th, 2011 | No CommentsSince we are in the throes of crawfish season (which lasts from January to June), I decided to do this post. Crawfish (or crayfish or crawdaddy, as they’re known in other parts of the country) are little shellfish that resemble tiny lobsters. Here in the dirty South, we call them crawfish. They are little “mudbugs” that live in the swamps, and yes, while this sounds disgusting, they are actually delicious when cooked Cajun-style.
First, let’s define Cajun cuisine. Often, it’s confused with Creole cuisine, but there is, in fact, a difference per se. The Creoles were wealthy planters who settled in southern Louisiana with their European chefs, thus it is a food of aristocracy. Using Old World techniques on indigenous ingredients, Creole cuisine was born. Bouillabaisse, native to Provence, gave way to gumbo; the Spanish paella was the basis for jambalaya; and so on.
The Cajuns, on the other hand, descended from the Acadian refugees. They were less aristocratic and more agrarian; they cooked simple “one pot” dishes for mere sustenance. Cajun food is usually characterized by such ingredients as wild game, seafoods, wild vegetables and herbs. Ingredients from nearby swamps, woods, and bayous are typical things found in the Cajun black iron pot.
Today, many Creole and Cajun foods have blended into a melting pot, if you will, of southern Louisiana. One things’ for sure, though: it’s an American cuisine from the South like no other.
A crawfish boil is an event native to Louisiana but over the years has spread to most of the deep South (like my native Houston), and now, it can even be found in California, Colorado, and D.C. But because I’m a Southern girl, I don’t trust eatin’ crawfish nowhere but down he’e. What’s unique and fun about a crawfish boil is the atmosphere. Not only are you grubbin’ on good food, but you do it outside on a picnic table covered with newspaper or butcher paper. You do it over beer. You do it with your bare hands. (Or if you’re prissy like me, with plastic or latex gloves.) Most importantly, you do it with good company–it is NOT to be eaten alone. The crawfish and all the fixin’s are poured straight from the pot onto the middle of the table, and everyone grabs from the steaming pile of awesome goodness.
This recipe is based on one I got from a former coworker who has French roots from southern Louisiana. Whether she’s Creole or Cajun, I have yet to determine, but either way, this recipe is pretty tasty. She and her family do a crawfish boil every year for about a hundred friends and family. I, of course, scaled down the servings and tweaked it a little, but remember that you need to do this with a group. Also, it’s like a half day affair, so make sure you have lots of energy. I haven’t held a crawfish boil myself since 2008 because the purging, cooking, and especially the cleaning up have been too much for this tired soul. But when the best restaurants around town sell crawfish for $7+ per pound, a little DIY is something to consider.
Crazy Cajun crawfish
Recipe: Cajun Crawfish Boil
Summary: From the Melancons of southern Louisiana
Ingredients
- 30-40 lbs. live crawfish
- 3 lemons, halved
- 2.5 tbsp. cayenne pepper
- 6 med. onions, halved
- 9 unpeeled garlic heads
- 1.5 tbsp. minced garlic
- 2.5 tbsp. Louisiana brand hot sauce
- 1/2 to 1 lg. pkg. Louisiana brand crab/seafood boil powder
- 12 oz. cans pineapple slices
- 10 med. red potatoes
- 1 lg. pkg. button mushrooms
- 2 lbs. sausage links
- 30 sm. frozen corn on the cob
- 1/2 canister of salt
Instructions
- Crawfish must be purged before cooking to rid the shellfish of dirt and impurities: an hour before cooking, dump live crawfish into a lg. bin and rinse with water. Dump water and repeat. Refill bin with enough water to cover crawfish. Add half the salt canister and stir.
- Fill the pot’s basket with crawfish. Place the basket inside the pot and fill pot with water to cover crawfish. Remove basket and note the water level. Dump water and refill pot to the noted water level.
- Heat water to rolling boil. Add Louisiana powder, squeezed lemons plus their rinds, minced garlic, hot sauce, cayenne pepper, and pineapple slices plus juice.
- Dump crawfish into bin. Rinse 2 more times.
- Dump crawfish, potatoes, onion halves, and garlic heads into basket. Hose down.
- When water reaches rolling boil, carefully lower basket into pot. Bring back to rolling boil, and then time for 4 min.
- After 4 min., turn off fire. Add corn, sausages, and mushrooms. Let stand for at least 20 min. The longer it soaks, the spicier the batch.
Quick Notes
Cook the crawfish outdoors using the same pot, basket, and propane burner used for deep-fried turkey.
Many people say the larger the better, but I like medium-sized crawfish best because: (1) they’re easier to peel, and (2) they soak up the spices better.
Use andouille or boudin sausage for an authentic Cajun boil.
Avoid eating the crawfish with straight tails: they went into the pot already dead and could contain harmful bacteria. Stick with the curled tails.
Dipping sauces: I like to eat my crawfish straight up without any dipping sauces as I prefer to taste the essence of the spices. But many people enjoy it with various condiments. The ones I often see are: (1) salt and pepper with fresh lemon juice; (2) mayo mixed with Sriracha (or rooster) hot sauce; and (3) Creole seasoning mixed with fresh lemon juice.
This recipe should serve approx. 10.
Variations
The longer the crawfish soak after turning off the fire, the spicier they will be. Soak for a minimum of 20 min.
My favorite crawfish restaurant in Houston is The Boiling Crab. They seem to use a ton of minced garlic on their crawfish, which I may try to emulate next time by upping my minced garlic by ten or something. If you get to this before I do, let me know how it is.
Meal type: dinner
Culinary tradition: USA (Southern)
Microformatting by hRecipe.
starting our urban (and hopefully organic) garden
Posted by the Blind Cook in For the Cook, For the Eater, The urban garden, Tips & techniques, VegetablesJan 10th, 2011 | 1 CommentI’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions. I’m a firm believer in creating goals as soon as you find the need or desire to do so rather than waiting for the dawn of a new year to tell yourself you need to do something you should’ve done long ago. Last weekend, my husband and I finally planted our first greens in our urban garden, and even though it just happen to happen on New year’s weekend, it had been something I’d wanted to do for years. The original plan for a garden was delayed after I realized I would eventually put my old home on the market and move. Then when we settled into our current house a little over a year ago, there were just other things that took priority, e.g. furnishing the place. We purchased a cedar raised garden bed kit from Costco several months ago, and it wasn’t assembled until more recently after I’d declared a new household rule that for every time John played a round of golf, he’d have to accomplish some task around the house. (And tasks I considered maintenance (e.g. mowing the lawn) didn’t count–they had to be “new” tasks.) Even after assembly, it took some time for us to get around to doing the research for optimal urban organic gardening. John’s boss, who is an organic gardener himself, recommended us this book entitled How to Grow More Vegetables…. Can you say there is a lot to learn for gardening? I think John cracked open the book a few times and then gave up. We drove straight to Lowe’s and bought Black Kow manure which was then stored in our garage for quite some time. You can imagine how nicely our garage smelled for those several months of cow poop storage. Finally, on the day after New Year’s Day, we ventured over to Buchanan’s Native Plants, a nearby nursery specializing in Texas plants. The employees were incredibly patient and helpful, holding our hands through the entire timid process of popping our garden cherry. We ended up walking away with cilantro, oregano, Sicilian (or flat-leaf) parsley, rosemary, thyme, and broccoli for our vegetable garden. For the shaded area next to our front door, we bought a dormant hydrangea and several aureas which John planted in the half barrel whisky cask we’d also bought from Lowe’s last year. Hopefully the hydrangea will bloom nice and big once spring and summer come.
In February, we plan to return to Buchanan’s for some tomato plants and basil which fare better in slightly warmer weather. I don’t even know if the plants we’d already purchased will survive the rest of winter; we don’t have a clue as to what we’re doing so don’t take this post as advice of any kind–it’s more of an update in our culinary lives. Yes, with our new urban garden, John and I hope to cut the spending at grocery stores all the while learning to appreciate the care that goes into growing our own food and enjoying the delicious and healthier alternative of self-sustainability. I know it’s silly but I’ve been going outside almost every day and sticking my nose into the herbs and inhaling the magical scents. (Hey, how else can a blind person monitor the growth process of her plants?) More updates on our gardening experiences to come. In the meantime, here’s a picture of our humble garden. Also, feel free to leave some gardening tips for us in the comments section. We can use all the help we can get. Remember, this is a couple who’s killed a cactus and just about every plant they’ve ever come across.
Starting off small
roasted new red potatoes
Posted by the Blind Cook in cuisine American, cuisine French, For the Cook, Sides & salads, VegetablesDec 21st, 2010 | 1 Comment2010 will be our first Christmas celebrated as husband and wife. To mark this mini milestone, John and I are hosting Christmas lunch for some of our family. So what’s on the menu this time?
Well, I started off the month of December with a cold, and so the rather unfortunate circumstance had me rethinking whether we should even host a holiday gathering at our house at all. But then after some of the Nyquil fog cleared from my head, I decided maybe we’ll just buy pre-marinated meats from Costco, pop it in the oven Saturday morning, and call it a meal. But when we went to Costco to look for something, there weren’t really many options. And so back to the ol’ drawing board it was; time to go to plan B.
Then I found a recipe for [insert mystery meat here] online and decided the [insert mystery meat here] wouldn’t be too difficult to make. So after running it by my husband, we’ve decided to go ahead and attempt yet another fancy dinner from scratch. So what is the mystery entree? You’ll have to tune in tomorrow to find out. What I will tell you is that this side dish and the quick and easy and delicious country green beans are what we’ll be serving alongside the main entree. Can you guess what it’ll be?
Potatoes are so versatile and yummy. They can go in soups, stews, or salads. They can be baked, mashed, pan-fried, or deep-fried. At the grocery store, there are mountains of potatoes, and I’m talking potatoes of all kinds: russet, white, yellow, gold, red, new, fingerlings…The options are endless. So how do you go about choosing the perfect potato? It all depends on what you are trying to do with the spud. This calls for a lesson in potatoes, which I’ll be posting soon. But for now, let’s cut to the chase. We’ve got four days till the Noel and no time for B.S.
These potatoes should be fabulous complements to a savory meat. Serve a few as a side next to roasted chicken, roasted duck, rack of lamb, strip steak. Their simplicity should add to the dynamic flavors of the dish, not vie for center stage. And with only four ingredients and two cooking steps, this is definitely a dish the Blind can Cook.
Recipe: Roasted New Red Potatoes
Summary: Original recipe from All Recipes.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs. small new red potatoes, halved
- 1/4 c. olive oil
- 1 tsp. salt & freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Adjust rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Toss potatoes with oil, salt & pepper. Arrange, cut side down, on a single layer on a lg. lipped cookie sheet or baking pan.
- Roast until tender and golden brown, about 30 min. (Check after 20 min.) Transfer to a serving bowl.
Variations
For something a little extra, try sprinkling rosemary, parsley, or basil over the potatoes halfway through roasting.
Cooking time (duration): 40
Diet type: Vegan
Meal type: dinner
Culinary tradition: USA (General)
Microformatting by hRecipe.
