Latke Party

My mom's delicious latkes for our belated Hannukah party:

An Interesting Dinner with Ali and Anita

The effort to taste ratio of this meal was a little too high for my taste, but overall it was a fun experience. We made the same fish that I made in August with the herb/spice fish marinade.
Maple glazed sweet potato puree from Food network online.
Cous-Cous
Sauteed Spinach (of course)
And the whole plate- a lot of green and orange mush for all that work....

Winter Break Timez!

So I'm sitting here in our little cafe on campus sharing this blog with my friends and I realized that I hadn't posted anything from winter break...I must say it was not a prolific time in my cooking career, but there are a few pics worthy of posting. I'll definitely post some food pics (and other pics) from my adventures in the holy land. I've already experienced some amazing and totz typz middle eastern food which is so distinct and incredible and bountiful.


Salad with sauteed mushrooms, apples, almonds, goat cheese, and garlic vinaigrette.Baked Ziti from the Bittman book.
Banana muffins that I made up based on a formula in the Mark Bittman book! Basically they involve flour, rolled oats, nuts, honey, banana...with melted organic peanut butter and chocolate chips for frosting...
Chocolate chip bark which didn't really turn out and i wouldn't remake so i'm not gonna post the recipe...

TOM. KHA. GAI.

Driving home late one night in a blizzard, I noticed a dark object in the middle of the road.... i slid to a stop and jumped out of the car to investigate. It was a tiny can of coconut milk. Confused, I looked around, searching for some kind of answer. The dead trees watched the scene unfold silently. Suddenly, the wind began to pick up and I heard a low whisper, "Tom.......Kha........Gai!" In a flurry of snow the can of coconut milk had vanished.

Adriatic Shrimp Soup with Chickpeas and Saffron

Time was of the essence; desperately I grabbed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, hoping to find inspiration within its pages. It was then my eyes came across this delightful dish from Adriatica.

Ingredients:
2 small cans chickpeas, rinsed drained
Olive Oil
2 pounds cooked, peeled shrimp
2 quarts chicken stock
2 onions, diced
2 ribs of celery (in retrospect i would have added 3 or 4), diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
8 cloves garlic, chopped
3 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme (i used the powdered)
1 sprig rosemary
1 tablespoon fennel seed
2 tsp hot chili flakes ( iadded more -obvi- and it was great)
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon loosely packed saffron threads
1.5 cups white wine
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 large bunch rapini cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 chopped shallot
2 tbsp Sambuca (i just used powdered anise and it was fine)

Place large soup pot over medium heat. add 3 tablespoons oil and when
hot, add onions, celery, carrot, fennel, 3/4 of the garlic, the bay
leaves, thyme, rosemary, fennel seed, 1 tsp chili flakes, oregano,
salt and pepper. cover, stir regularly, 10 minutes. add saffron and
wine, bring to a boil and boil2 minutes. add stock and tomatoes and
bring to simmer. simmer for around 30 minutes, until carrots/celery
soft (you can't really overcook it) Add the chickpeas 5-10 min before
serving so they dont fall apart.

Prepare shrimp-rapini garnish by placign large saute pan over very
high heat. toss the rapini in a bowl with oil and season with salt and
ppepper sear in hot , dry pan, tossing for about 1-2 minutes, until
crisp tender. remove toa bowl.
toss shrimp with oil , season with salt and pepper and put in the same
hot dry pan, toss for a minute, add shallot remaining garlic and chili
flakes. toss for a minute more. add rapini again at the very end.

THEN you put a little heap of the shrimp-rapini stuff in the middle of
the bowl and ladle the soup all around it. so delicious. then
afterward i just threw it all together in a tupperware, no need to
keep the parts separate.

First cooking adventure in Paris - Homemade Tomato Sauce

Yummy! Homemade tomato sauce avec les echalotes, tomates, champignons, et crevettes (shallots, tomatoes, mushrooms, and shrimp).

For the pasta sauce:
In a large saucepan, sautee diced shallots, garlic, and diced mushrooms with a dash of olive oil on medium-high until shallots are soft and mushrooms are brown (can add shallots first).
Add fresh diced tomatoes (we used 5) and let simmer, stirring regularly until tomatoes soften and form a sauce.
Add a dash of orange juice.
Add salt n' peppa to taste.
Add a package of cooked shrimp and let simmer on low until ready to serve.
Serve over whole-wheat penne.
Makes 6 servings.

Pasta Risotto Take 2

Pasta risotto take 2: better this time! I used vegetable bullion instead of chicken broth, and it had a much better flavor. I used asparagus, green peas, mushrooms, shallots, and white wine, and gemelli instead of shells. I think it was more creamy with the shells.