Steaks without a grill! ...and in a flash?

Steaks without a grill....crazy I said, CRAZY! Steaks must be done on a grill, preferably on a charcoal grill, although in a pinch gas will work. Well a couple years back due to my LOVE of Nigella Lawson's writing and her food show I purchased her book: Nigella Express, (I also own How to be a Domestic Goddess, of which I am sure you will hear more of in the future).

So I wanted to cook a nice dinner for my bf and I wanted to include steak. So I turned to Nigella to find some inspiration. She flash cooks a steak in a frying pan and then post-cook marinate it. My first attempt at the recipe was not all that successful however in the post analysis I realized that getting the proper cut of meat is essential. In Sunshineville there is no local butcher, which means trying to find Although I have recently heard of a few places that I need to check out (one of which is Home Grown). Luckily however there is a Bristol Farms near by and I thought well they should at least have higher quality meat and potentially more choices than the pre-packaged cuts at other grocery stores near by. Well I went into the Bristol Farms after 9:30pm and there weren't too many people in the store. I honestly wasn't sure when they closed. The butcher counter looked closed since they had covered most of their meats for the night. But there was a nice guy behind the counter that asked me if I needed some help. After a little bit of an pleasant but awkward exchange with him (I was exhausted and not processing at top speed) I walked out with about 2 lbs of nice looking rump roast.

The following night was cooking night! I mixed up the post-searing marinade in a pie plate (recipe below) and I sliced two steaks off my rump roast about 1 in each. They looked small but knew with everything else we were having they would be enough. I brushed each piece with some olive oil on each side of the steaks and place them in a hot pan (no oil added here). I let the steaks cook about 2 minutes each side and then another minute on each side.The steaks should be fairly rare, the marinate will finish the cooking. Next place each steak place them in the marinate and let sit on each side for 2 minutes. Serve with sides of your choice!

Rough Recipe: Lemon Marinade (Inspired by Nigella Lawson's Lemon and Thyme Marinade)

Olive Oil

Lemon juice (equal amount to the olive oil)

Lemon zest

garlic cloves crushed

sea-salt or kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

thyme (fresh is better - although all I had at the time was dried)

Mix the above mentioned ingredients in a shallow dish (a pie plate works well). When steaks have cooked (they should be rare) place them in the marinade for 2 minutes each side.

To wrap up, I would like to say that if lemon and beef seem like a strange combination, I urge you to try it before knocking it. It is is different to be sure, but in a delicious refreshing sort of way. It does only work with thin steaks however; don't try post-marinading a huge T-bone! Also for all of you who may not think ahead when it comes to dinner, the post marinading trick means you can have steak even if you didn't have the forethought (or a working time machine!) to started marinading steaks in the morning or the night before. Not to say that every steak eaten needs to be marinaded!

Salty Chocolate Caramel Cake

Back at the end of November a friend defended her PhD Thesis (whoohoo!) and I hosted a pot-luck celebration for her. I had been itching to make a cake for a while and I thought this would be a perfect excuse to try my hand in a layered cake. After inquiring what type of cake she would like I decided I was going to do a twist on a chocolate cake by adding caramel and salt to the mix! Now I thought that most of the world knew about the salted chocolate and salt caramel craze but to my surprise there were numerous people who thought the combo was a little weird until they tasted their first bite. Then it was love and rave reviews the rest of the night. While I would love to come up with my recipes I just don't have the time, so I troll the internet and browse through the few cook books I have for inspiration and direction. I found a recipe from Martha Stewart's website for a Salted-Caramel Six Layer Chocolate Cake and it sounded so tantalizing I just had to try it!

Salted Chocolate Caramel Cake from Martha Stewart

I won't recopy the recipe here, but you can click the link above to find it. I made a few changes that I will include. Now I must confess I did not really have the time to make my own caramel. I am typically "a from scratch" kind of girl, primarily because the effort rewards itself the taste and the quality. It also allows you to tweak things that you just can't in the same way when using mixes or prepared items. So I bought a jar of caramel topping, I believe it was Smuckers but my memory is a little fuzzy. The cake I made was also only three layers. I had slightly larger cake pans so the baked layers were not really thick enough to slice in half and keep their structural integrity. I did however for the first time trim the layers so that they were flat and let me tell you it makes constructing a layered cake so much easier! There is also not the fear that one of the layers will slide off. I did leave the top layer rounded to make the top of the cake seem higher. Then the last little tweak was because I had coarse kosher salt on hand I just used that instead of flaked sea-salt.

It is a little surprising with the number of people and the rave reviews that the cake didn't disappear that night. However with most fine desserts a little does go a long way. The cake kept relatively well for a couple days, the caramel definitely helped the cake stay moist. The salt did melt after the first day so the rock salt turned into little salt condensation pools, which gave the same salty effect to the chocolate. I definitely am keeping this recipe for the future. I also recommend eating the cake with a good strong cup of coffee!

Happy Baking and Savoring!

Apple Cherry Cheddar Scones

A Baking post!

A while back my bf and myself took a little drive out of Sunshineville proper to the town of Julian. We decided this trip we would get pie first since the Julian Pie Company closes at 5pm and we missed having their pie the last time we had been up. While standing in line we were discussing what type we were going to get and discussing ice cream or no ice cream. Then low and behold I see you can have your pie served with a piece of cheddar cheese. I got all excited and decided absolutely no ice-cream for me for cheddar is the way to my heart!!! My bf gives me a strange look and made some kinda comment along the lines of ...not that again... You see our last trip up the only place open was an other restaurant which had decent pie but not as good at Julian Pie Company's and the cheddar I got on it was definitely not top notice cheddar. So while good it was not excellent and definitely not the way to introduce this seemingly odd concoction to my bf. In my quick research of the origins of cheddar on apple pie it seems to come from regions that produce really good cheddar cheese (Vermont, NE, NY). My grandfather who grew up in Wisconsin also was a fan. Apply pie and cheddar cheese must be eaten correctly. This means no store bought pies and only top line extra-sharp (the sharper the better) cheddar cheese (please no store brands! My go to standby is Tillamook).

So...how does a discussion of apple pie and cheddar cheese leads to scones...it shouldn't be a huge leap if you look at the post title.

I found a recipe for Apple Cheddar Scones from the food blog SmittenKitchen. The recipe posted there had been tweaked from one in The Perfect Finish. The recipe in SK instructed to use white cheddar although I used yellow cheddar and it didn't look terrible. I also substituted half of the regular flour for whole wheat and I added dried cherries. I know this makes the recipe a bit more expensive to make since dried cherries are not cheap, but the cherry and apple with the cheddar flavor is to die for, at least in my opinion. While I am a lazy baker when it come to steps like brushing with an egg wash. But I do recommend not being lazy in this case because it does make the scones look so much more appetizing.  The scones got rave reviews from all who tried them and I was assured while I thought the cheddar taste was a bit wimpy that you could taste the cheddar and it made a tasty combo. My bf gobbled the ones I gave him right up! I think I might tweak the recipe by adding more cheddar or sprinkling some one the top to bake. From there I might go wild and add cheese to pie crusts...that is if I don't eat the cheese before I get to baking it!

Brussels Sprouts, potatoes and fish...oh my!

Saturday evenings since the New Year have been let's cook night for me and my bf. It has been a great way for the two of us to spend time together and save some money. There have been some (in my mind) epic failures and there have been some great meals as well. Mostly they are simple, well balanced hitting the important food groups and always colorful! This week's Saturday night meal was grill fish (yellow tail and swordfish) with goat cheese mashed potatoes and braised Brussels Sprouts. The inspiration was actually the potatoes which were suppose to be my attempt making Colcannon.

Colcannon - Traditional Irish Potato Dish

Unfortunately I didn't do a whole lot of recipe research due to a lack of time and the first recipe that I happened upon (which sounds amazing) said it takes nearly 2 hours! While I can spend that much time making something I really wasn't in the mood. Since then however I have found that they are not all that long to make and I probably could have whipped up a simple version in the same time I made the mashed potatoes. Que sera sera!

Menu: Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes, Butter Braised Brussels Sprouts, Grilled Fish

Rough Recipe: Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes 

Russet Potatoes (or another type of your pleasing - the starch types are the best however!)

Butter (Don't even think of using margarine it is a sin!)

Half and Half (milk can be used as well to reduce the fat, best not to use skim!)

Salt and Peper to taste (using white pepper means no black specks in the cream whiteness of the potatoes)

Goat Cheese (plain or herb)

Note: you will notice I didn't use amounts - I typically cook by eye and taste when it is something that using exact amounts don't matter.

Cut the potatoes in to small cubes (I like leaving the skin on, but you can always peel them. But you get more nutrients eating the skin). Boil in salted water for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are soft. Drain water and return to pan (you can also do this ahead of time and then store the potatoes in the refrigerator for when you are ready). On medium heat pour some milk into the pan with the potatoes and add a Tbs of butter. Mash the potatoes, stirring occasionally so they don't burn on the bottom of the pan. Add more milk and butter as necessary. I like personally like my mashed potatoes with a little personality, so I leave it chunky. The changes in consistency from potatoes pieces and skin to smooth and creamy is more homey and inviting in my opinion. If you want them completely smooth you will need to mash them really well and then whip them in some fashion either in a blender or with an immersion blender. All of this seems like a lot of extra work and clean up just to remove a few lumps! Just before serving mix in goat cheese. Add as much as you want! I personally love the pungent tangy taste of goat cheese so I added a lot. All you have left is to savor the cheesy potato goodness!

Then there are the Brussels Sprouts! I love Brussels Sprouts! I can't express this enough. Now I know there are quite a few people out there that may cringe at the idea of them and definitely don't like the taste. But, let me tell you if cooked right they are heavenly! But you do need to get fresh ones and you definitely don't want to over cook them. Just like cabbage when over cooked which can start to taste sulfurous. In Sunshineville it is pretty easy to get a whole lot of vegetables at any time during the year with no mind to what season these vegetables come from. Brussels Sprouts are not one of them. They are a winter vegetable and should only be enjoy in the winter and early spring in my mind! So I do a little dance in the store Jan - March when I can find Brussels sprouts at 99 cents/lb. They have to be though perfect little miniature cabbages. If the outside leaves look really wilted or black I usually pass on them. I know the fresh they are the better they will taste.

I use to only steam Brussels sprouts but I typically found I would over cook the outside just to get the middle cooked. I also decided that just steam was not enough for these wonderful vegetables! So here is what I did:

Rough Recipe: Butter Braised Brussels Sprouts

Brussel sprouts - trimmed and cut in half

garlic - diced or minced (minced is much easier if you don't want your hands smelling of garlic)

butter

water

Melt butter in a saute pan with the mince garlic. Add the Brussels sprouts cut side down in the pan. Cook til they are slightly browned. Turn the sprouts and brown the other side. Once golden brown on each side add 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of water. Let sprouts steam til they are perfectly bright green! Try not to gobble them up before they hit the plate.

The remainder of the meal was cooked by my bf. Fish grilled with just a little salt and pepper. I must say I would like to take time to mention the Pacific Beach Fish Shop.

 If you live in Sunshineville and like fish you should check out the PB Fish Shop. They are a restaurant but you can also buy fish by the lb to cook yourself. I've been there twice to eat and definitely recommend it. They have excellent fish, great local beer selection and a great ambiance. The place may be in PB, but it doesn't have the undergrad vibe that so many other places nearer the water have. Please note the place is small and they have a single register so if you go in the evening the line will take a while, but it is worth it! I know you can call in orders and if you do there is a shorter line to pay for phone orders.

This is an experiment...

This is an experiment, but then I am an experimental scientist. I approach many things in my life as a scientist, which means I analyze, formulate and then try different variations of things until I achieve the results I want. I am disciplined in my work research, I am a bit less disciplined in my cooking experiments. In the same breath I am an artist. While I may be a chemist now, I am also a dancer. I grew up dancing and at time I find that art is the only way to express the stream of emotions and thoughts that swirl and circle in my head. So while I might approach cooking as an experiment I approach baking like an art.

So with that this blog is an experiment. I must warn you I am not super re-fined and I balk at trying to come up with the craziest fusions of foods. I like simple foods where the flavors of the ingredients are the star. No over seasoning will be found here (although there may be a theme of spicy foods from time to time since both myself and my bf with a decent amount of heat). There will be recipes often modified from those that I found. Love love love Nigella Lawson because she talks about food that encompasses all of the senses. I love Julia Child because the frontiers she forged. As I discover others I fall in love with I will share them, but now I will leave the list short.

I will also warn you that this blog will not always be of food and recipes. I may not photo document. I may be reckless with my measurements and I may travel down tangents and tangents of those tangents, but the journey is what is fun not the destination.