morsels & sauces

Adapted from Cookbook #39:  The Nero Wolfe Cookbook (1973) Recipe:  Planked Porterhouse Steak If I continue to eat meals like this, I will begin to look like Nero Wolfe.  Nero Wolfe? you say. Allow me to introduce you, if you are not yet acquainted.  Mr. Wolfe is the corpulent, New York City detective who solves all of his cases between the hours of 11 and 1 or 2 and 4, because  he is otherwise occupied with tending his prize orchids or eating his prize meals, cooked by none other than the Swiss chef Fritz Brenner. Around our house, Nero Wolfe and his sidekick Archie Goodwin are not to be trifled with. If you love eating and you love reading, then you need to get your hands on a Nero Wolfe book.  And there are plenty of them.   Rex Stout penned some 33 novels and 39 short stories.  In fact, the husband owns most, if not all, of the books.  For some time he was on the search for copies of the books, and he rummag...

Adapted from Cookbook #38:  Great Good Food Recipe:  Catfish with Black Bean Salsa My grandfather died when I was in college--I was away and I didn't return to my hometown for the funeral.  But I remember him well: the cans of Budweiser, the little white house, the tacky bronze fountain with a naked woman in it in his living room, and the fish cook outs.  He had a fishing shack in a small town on the Mississippi River and from time to time he would take my brother and me fishing with him.  I don't particularly remember liking fishing, but I certainly appreciated all of the accessories.  For my birthday, I was gifted a fishing rod, and I had a fishing hat onto which I could hook my tackle.  In the garage I kept a small orange tackle box with fifteen little compartments into which I could put my fancy jiggling lures or my plain sinkers.  I would sometimes pull it down from the shelf above my father's work bench, and I would line up all of my ...

Adapted from Cookbook #37:  Bread: From Sourdough to Rye   (2005) Recipe:  Masala Dosa with Spicy Potatoes and Spinach   --> Well, that didn't work out so well.  It's been a while since we have had a failure, and last night we had one. Dosa is an astonishing Southern Indian pancake/flatbread made from a fermented batter of rice and dhal. It's India's version of the Crepe!  I love the Crepe! See here and here .  Rich in carbohydrates and protein, unfilled dosa are eaten with a fresh, moist coconut chutney for breakfast.  But for a full meal, just add spicy potatoes or spinach or both.  This is a meal I can get behind. However, dinner didn't quite go like that for me. Two nights ago, I soaked the rice and dhal.  The next morning I ground them up and set them atop the stove for a 12-hour fermentation.  I came home about ten hours later and noticed the batter wasn't bubbly enough, so I turned on the stove...

Adapted from Cookbook #36 :  Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen   (1996) Recipe:  Tamal de Cazuela (Crusty Baked Tamal) Every Christmas, one of the husband's fathers* hosts a small tamalada.  These tamale-making-parties carry on New World traditions, and our annual gathering is a nod to the husband's father's Mexican-by-way-of-Oklahoma heritage.  Labor-intensive and best conducted with many hands and pitchers of margaritas or sangria, this get-together often leaves us feeling a little sick because not only do we devour a good deal of the filling before we mold masa around it, we also eat way too many of the cooked tamales (particularly the tomatillo-chicken ones).  At the end of the night, we haul home oodles of them (leaving twice as many behind with the parental hosts), and those tamales that we don't immediately consume in the next week we put in the freezer to be pulled out for a March tamal or two or ten. While it would feel strange to have a tama...

Adapted from Cookbook #35:  Marcella Cucina   (1997) Recipe:  Tortino di Crespelle con Melanzane e Peperoni (Baked Crêpes Pie with Eggplant and Peppers) Welcome Full-Blown Taste of Summer!  This little pie announces summer with a trumpet call.  So unpack that eggplant from your CSA box or toddle on over to your local farmers' market for some bell peppers, because summer is on!  Yes, yes, the kiddies are returning to school and the days are getting shorter, but it can taste like sweet, sweet summer for a couple of more weeks. As I mentioned in the last entry , we made dinner for the husband's parents in order to celebrate the end of Napfest 2010.  And this Tortino is darned astonishing.  While the recipe is long, this isn't really all that hard to make. Granted, this was the first time I ever cooked this dish, so I set aside a good two hours and worked without hurry.  I made the recipe in a different order than...

Adapted from Cookbook #34:  Dona Tomas:  Discovering Authentic Mexican Cooking Recipe: Sangría Sandía (Fresh Watermelon Sangria) Okay, August, do you want to slow down?  I am just not quite ready to close the books on Summer Napfest 2010.  But if we do have to mark the end of summer, let's do it with a summery drink in hand! I am well aware that we have a full month to go before the official end of summer arrives.  But I head back to work on Monday, and to mark the end of quite possibly one of the best summers of my entire life, we made dinner for the husband's parents. First, let's talk about why this summer has been so wonderful.  One word:  Naps.  My entire summer, post Illinois wedding, has revolved around my nap schedule.  Oh, you want to get together in the afternoon?  Sorry, can't.  I have a nap scheduled at 2 p.m. Soon such luxuries will no longer be mine. After today's nap, the husband and I went over to the hu...