The Culinary Cuttlefish

Kitchen Container Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Blueberry bush, will need a
bigger container in the future

I love gardens. My parents have the most gorgeous flower gardens and a big vegetable garden every year. Unfortunately I live in an apartment building and there's isn't much of a yard here. What I do have though is a big porch I share with two other apartments (only one of which is occupied right now) and a small area in front of it where I can have a container garden. My landlords have been really nice about the whole thing and let me drill holes in the porch to hang a couple planters.

I bought this wonderful book recently Bountiful Container which is all about growing foods in containers, it covers vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. While I like flowers I'm really more interested in growing my own food.


Tomato seedlings. I'm not actually going to plant so many, the extras are more my parents.

It's still April and here in Maine that means that the danger of frost isn't yet past so I have all but my hardiest plants started indoors. I look forward to later this summer when I have lots of delicious food just a quick walk downstairs.

Just as a note, ALL container gardening regardless of the type of container is harder to keep watered than a regular garden. Using a potting soil with peat and either vermiculite or perlite will help it dry out less, also I've added water beads to my potting soil for even more added water retention. If you aren't familiar with water beads (or water crystals) they are made from a water absorbing polymer, they start out small and hard but absorb a large amount of water to swell up into a squishy almost gel-like ball. They are fantastic for helping potting soil retain moisture.


First leaf on the strawberries

My favorite fresh summer vegetable (or technically fruit) is the tomato. For space reasons I've bought one of those Topsy Turvy Upside-Down Tomato Planter plus it was on sale for $5 (so was the Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planter I got at the same time). I'll write more about my experience with these planters later this summer when I see how they do. I've grown both plants before with success so I know what to expect and what constitutes how the plants normally behave versus what might be due to the planters.

Also in my hunt for planters I found a window bow still planter made to fit over porch and deck railings. This is so perfect to go under my hanging planters to catch water runoff so it doesn't make a mess on the porch. The added benefit is that I used it to plant mesclun mix. What is mesclun? Well to quote that font of all knowledge known as Wikipedia:

Salad box, just planted so no sprouts ye

"Mesclun is a salad mix of assorted small, young salad leaves which originated in Provence, France. The traditional mix includes chervil, arugula, leafy lettuces and endive in equal proportions."

In other words it's ready to go salad mix. Most salad type greens have pretty shallow roots so a box like this works well. I've started this inside but by the time the seeds have sprouted so I can thin out the seedlings it will the past frost danger and it will take up it's abode on the porch rail.

Nasturtiums and bush Sugar Snap Peas

The next addition to my garden is waiting on a planter from my parents before it goes outside, I'll be picking it up possibly this weekend and if not then next weekend. It will house my bush sugar snap peas, nasturtiums, and some of my herbs. I've planted six but I'll probably only plant two and give the rest to my parents (along with all my other extra plants, it's a good trade for the planter, all the free eggs I get from their hens, and the corn, green beans, and cucumbers from their garden that I can't grow here). Nasturtiums, aside from being really beautiful flowers, are also edible and are great in salads. My garden is about food first and beauty second.

Lastly there are my herbs. I have them all started in pots in my window right now. The dill and spearmint will be staying in their big pots for the summer, the rosemary when it's big enough will be transplanting to it's own pot (since it's not an annual I want to be able to bring it indoors in the winter) the rest of the annual herbs will be transplanted out of their little pots and into a big planter once they are a good size. I then plan to plant more of them in the small pots in the late summer so I have some herbs indoors through the winter. Why not keep them all indoors? Well they just don't grow as well in my window as they will outside, just not enough direct sunlight. I'm willing to put up with that in the winter when fresh herbs are so expensive to buy in the store but there's no good reason to in the summer.

Dill and Spearmint

For herbs I'm growing: basil, oregano, thyme, sage, cilantro, parsley, rosemary (won't be big enough this year for harvesting), dill, and spearmint. I love cooking with fresh herbs but they are pricey and don't keep long so growing them is really great, I can cut what I need right before cooking.

So this is my pretty ambitious gardening project and I plan to post the occasional update about how it's going and what great foods I'm making with my produce.

Weekend Stock

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 23:37:00 +0000

I call this "Weekend Stock" because it does take about 8 hours or so to make. Don't worry though, the actual prep time is closer to 30 minutes and is very easy, the other 7 hours and 30 minutes are letting the stock simmer on the stove. You should never leave a stove completely unattended so you can't put the stock on and leave for work however feel free to watch tv, clean, do homework, or play with your kids while it cooks.

Equipment:
1 Stock pot (I have an 8 quart one)
1 Mesh strainer
Ladel
Large bowl for straining the stock into
Freezer safe storage bowls

Fill your stock pot between 1/2 and 2/3 full of water (depends on how much finished stock you want and the size of your pot). Throw in your stock ingredients (roast raw meat/bones first if you'd like a richer stock) and cook for about 7 hours or so. Check periodically to make sure the pot isn't boiling down too much, if it gets to be less than 1/2 the initial amount of water, add some more. When your stock is done, strain it into a large bowl through a fine mesh strainer to remove all the chunks.

If you made vegetable stock you can transfer the stock into smaller storage bowls now (or wait until it cools) and freeze any you aren't going to use within a few days. For meat based stock, allow it to cool in the fridge for a couple hours so the fat will solidify on the surface of the stock. If you have a very gelatinous stock (good for you! that's the best kind) you'll need to warm it up a little bit in a microwave or on the stove before you can transfer it to storage bowls. Freeze any stock you won't be using, refrigerated stock will only last about a week.

I haven't specified what to make your stock from. This is entirely up to you but for around a gallon of finished stock you should have at least a pound of stuff. What sort of stuff?

For vegetable stock I use about 1/2 a medium onion and a couple cloves of garlic, a few carrots and stalks of celery and then any other non-starchy veggies you have lying around (corn, green beans, peas, zucchini, tomatos, etc.) starchy vegetables like potatoes aren't very good for stock. This is a great way to use up fresh veggies that are past their prime and those leftover partial bags of frozen veggies that seem to lurk in the back of the freezer. If you like you can also throw in dried or fresh herbs if you have them. I avoid adding salt to stock, I can add it later if I need to but it's hard to remove too much salt.

For meat stock: Again use the onion and garlic along with any other aromatic veggies you have lying around like celery. Then add about a pound of animal bits, try for a good mix of meat and bones. I generally buy whole cut up chickens at the grocery store (only about 50 cents more than a whole chicken and I don't have to cut it up) which includes the neck and giblets. I save up these pieces in the freezer along with the bones from the chicken breasts after I've cut the meat off (either cooked or raw doesn't matter). When I have enough saved up I make chicken stock. The day after Thanksgiving is also good if you've made a turkey, just pick the good meat off the carcass for and throw everything else in the stock pot (same works with any other poultry, chicken, duck, goose, even cornish game hens though you would need several carcasses). For beef/pork/lamb stock you can buy soup bones at the store or use leftover bones from ribs and other bone in cuts of meat.

First Dinner in my Apartment

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:35:00 +0000

So I've moved and it feels great to finally be on my own. To celebrate I cooked my first dinner in the new apartment (actually my second dinner here but friends cooked for me last night). I made pan seared salmon and a salad with homemade vinaigrette.

Salmon
This was a roughly 4 ounce piece of fish (half an 8 ounce fillet I cut in half, froze the remaining half for another night). Coated it generously on both sides with olive oil, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little freshly squeezed lemon juice. Cooked it in a non-stick pan for 3 minutes on each large side and 30 seconds each on the ends. Let sit under aluminum foil for 3-4 minutes while dishing out the salad.

Red wine vinaigrette
In a plastic squeeze bottle (of the type used for ketchup, salad dressing, etc) mix 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 1/8 teaspoon each of ground yellow mustard, dill seed, and minced garlic.This is a very small batch, double or triple it if you are serving multiple people. I like to make small amounts of vinaigrette like this that last me 2-3 days so then I can switch to a new combination of flavors.

Pi Day Tart

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:40:00 +0000

Been a long time since I've updated this blog. I've been busy and it's hard to remember to write posts when I'm cooking for 4 people however this may change soon as I may be moving into my own place soon.

March 14 (3.14) is Pi Day. In celebration I made this nice rustic berry tart. Since this was a thrown together recipe the measurements are approximate.

Ingredients:

1 frozen pie crust thawed, you can of course use homemade but I hate making pie crust.
2 cups berries of your choice, I used a mix of frozen strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, allow to thaw if you are using frozen. Drain excess juices that came out during thawing.
1/4 cup sugar, I don't like a really sweet tart, use 1/2 cup if you like it sweeter.
1/3 cup jam or jelly, I used orange marmalade to keep with the less sweet theme, apricot or apple would be nice too.
1/2 cup crushed ginger snaps. Graham crackers would probably also work.

Steps:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place pie crust in pie plate or on a sheet pan doesn't matter for this recipe (use some parchment paper or grease it to keep the tart from sticking).
Mix the berries, sugar, and half the cookie crumbs in a bowl, let sit 10 minutes.
Pour berries into middle of the crust, spread evenly to 2 inches from the edge. Microwave the jam for about 15-30 seconds to loosen it up a little, drizzle over the berries.
Fold edges of the crust in and over the berries (see picture).
Sprinkle the rest of the cookie crumbs over the top of the tart.
Bake 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown and delicious.
Allow to cool before cutting and serving.

Roasted Tomato Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Here's one of those recipes based on a classic that I've modified. Classically roasted tomato soup would be done with fresh tomatoes but good fresh tomatoes are hard to come by in Maine for most of the year so I've used canned tomatoes. I've also added my own twist with roasted sweet red peppers.

Ingredients:

2 14oz cans of tomatoes, diced or whole
1/2 roasted sweet red pepper (the kind in a jar, use fresh if you have it but I didn't)
Olive oil
1 clove garlic
Sliver of onion (I'm not sure how much, it was about an 1/8 inch slice off the half onion in my fridge)
1/2 cup chicken stock
Italian seasoning
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
Bay leaf

Directions:
1: Drain the cans of tomatoes, reserving liquid for later.
2: Lay tomatoes, onion, and garlic on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil. Cut tomatoes in half if you are using whole canned tomatoes
3: Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until caramelized
4: Combine reserved tomato juice and chicken stock in your soup pot.
5: Place tomatoes, onion, garlic, and roasted peppers in your food processor and blend until at your preferred level of smoothness (I like a little chunky).
6: Add tomato mixture to your soup pot. Add the bay leaf and season with the Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste.
7: Bring to a boil, reduce to medium and simmer about 10 minutes so the flavors meld together.

Served with some nice crusty toasted bread it's hearty but still very healthy.

Quick and Easy - Pesto Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:06:00 +0000

Here's a simple recipe to put together. It's what I made for dinner tonight when faced with only nothing planned and a package of chicken. I ended up using less than half a small jar of pesto, so it's good if you have some leftover in the fridge.

Ingredients:
Jar of pesto
Chicken pieces of choice

Directions:
1: Place chicken in shallow baking dish.
2: Spoon pesto over the chicken.
3: Bake at 350°F until done, this will depend on the cut and weight of the pieces, here's a chart or better yet use a probe thermometer to cook until the internal temperature is 165°F.
4: Share and enjoy.

Split Pea Soup: Delicious Comfort Food

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Pea soup in one of those wonderful, hearty foods that make you feel really good on a cold wet day. It also has the benefit of being very cheap and easy to make in a crock pot (even cheaper is the ham is from leftovers). This dish does take several hours to cook but being a crock pot recipe you can throw it together in the morning and just leave it simmering on low all day, it doesn't need constant attention.

I saved the bone form the ham I made last week to make this soup, it's a great way to use up leftover ham.

Ingredients:

2 cups dried split peas
1 ham bone, and/or leftover ham
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup diced onion
tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic minced
4 cups water
Bay leaf
Italian seasoning
Salt
Pepper

How to make it:
1: Saute the onion and garlic in the butter until transluscent.
2: Add peas, ham, stock, water, lemon juice, and bay leaf to your crock pot.
3: Season with Italian seasoning mix, salt, and pepper to taste
4: Simmer on low 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours until the peas break down and the soup thickens (actual time may vary depending on your crock pot, however pea soup can't really be overcooked so err on the side of more time)
5: Serve with thick slices of bread or fresh biscuits.

Save a little time:If you need to save some cooking time try this. Soak the peas overnight (or while your at work) in about 6 cups of water. Drain excess water before using. Reduce the amount of water you add to the crock pot to 3 cups. This can cut the cooking time by about 1/3.

Variations:
1: Try making this with turkey ham or your favorite smoked sausage
2: This recipe can easily be made vegetarian as well. Leave out the ham, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil, and swap the chicken stock for vegetable. It's just as delicious.
3: If you don't like sauteing the onion and garlic you can substitute some onion and garlic powder instead but you won't get as rich a taste.

Maple Ham Glaze

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:55:00 +0000

Today I made ham and eggs for dinner. The ham was a lovely smoked ham (non-aged) from the pig my family raised last year. You can use this glaze on any ham but I reccomend you get a bone-in ham that hasn't been spiral cut and stay away from reconstituted hams. I will refer to Alton Brown for more tips on selecting a ham:

The hams from our pig were quite strongly smoked so I really love to pair them with a rich sweet glaze. For cooking your ham, refer to the package instructions to see if it is partially, fully, or uncooked to know how long it'll need in the oven. I cooked my ham until the internal temperature reached 160 since while it was cold smoked it wasn't truly cooked and I'd rather be safe than sorry. This recipe is for a medium sized ham, about 3lbs.

Maple Glaze

1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
dash of cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper (give or take a bit, it was 2 grinds of my peppermill)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and add the maple syrup, stirring until its a thick gooey glaze. Apply to your ham 10-15 minutes before it finishes cooking.

Serve your ham with whatever sides you prefer. I like some eggs over easy with nice runny yolks.

Lovely Cooking Goodies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This new overstock store opened locally and imagine my delight when I see their pantry aisles full of wonderful stuff that is very hard to find in my rural area. Next trip I'm going to raid their selection of pastas which is great. I kept the food purchases minimal this trip because my main focus was getting kitchen equipment.

The haul includes: Dried shitake and porcini mushrooms, steel cut oatmeal (I love the texture), couscous, panko breadcrumbs, truffle oil, and capers. The capers are different than the other jar I have and I'm hoping will have a difference in flavor, as the ones I have now are a bit on the bitter side for me (which may be explained by the fact they were at walmart and very cheap). I'm really looking forward to using the truffle oil, if anyone has suggestions for recipes please pass them along.

Over the next couple weeks you'll probably see me trying out these ingredients a lot to see what I want to stock up on. This is an overstock store so the selection isn't constant but very affordable, usually well below typical retail. I got a stand mixer for $20 which is half what it retails for, pretty good and I'm hoping it lasts until I've saved up for a KitchenAid.

Here's tonight's dinner: Chicken and porcini mushrooms in marinara sauce over spaghetti and topped with some parmesan cheese. I put some fresh basil from my garden in it too, probably one of the last times this year, the basil has already taken a hit from a light frost.

If you haven't noticed from previous posts I don't do any fancy plating, I'm perfectly happy to just have my pasta in a bowl for simplicity. This is home cooking, you can make it look nice if you want (and I do for special occasions) but for day to day cooking I care a lot more about just making something that tastes great.

Recipe Variations: Cinnamon Rolls

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:00:00 +0000

I rarely find a recipe that I don't tweak a little bit so I'm going to start an occasional feature showing how I've changed recipes available online. Today's subject: Paula Deen's Cinnamon Rolls.

Now I rarely make any of Paula's dishes because there's just too much butter and oil but for an occasional dessert recipe that's okay.

My variations:

1: I added a pinch of allspice and ground loves to the cinnamon mixture that goes inside the buns. Just punched up the aroma factor a bit.
2: I used rapid rise yeast to cut the time it took to make. For bread I use regular yeast but for something like this rapid rise is great.
3: Instead of putting the roll slices in a baking pan I put them into a large muffin tin. This made for easy serving.

The results were complete success and 12 rolls barely lasted 24 hours.

Chicken in Creamy Yogurt Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:45:00 +0000

This recipe was one of those where I had things on hand and decided to make them work together to come up with dinner. I'm lactose intolerant but love daisy so I always have yogurt on hand to substitute in dishes. You do need to be a little careful with yogurt because it can curdle if you heat it too fast or too long.

Ingredients:

3 boneless chicken breasts cut in half
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth (3/4 cup if you don't want to use the wine)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 cloves garlic chopped
onion powder
paprika
peppercorns and/or ground pepper
cayenne pepper
poultry seasoning (I prefer Bell's)
kosher salt
olive oil
cornstarch & water

Directions
1: In a large skillet heat a coupel tablespoons of olive oil. Add in chopped garlic and a teaspoon of whole peppercorns (skip if using ground pepper)
2: Season chicken breasts with salt, poultry seasoning, paprika, onion powder, cayenne powder and (if using) ground pepper.
3: Add chicken to the skillet and brown all sides.
4: Add the lemon juice, wine, chicken broth and 2 teaspoons of cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup of cold water.
5: Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium and cover. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.
6: Uncover and brign the heat up to reduce the liquid, should get it to about half the original volume.
7: Reduce the heat again and add the yogurt. Once the yogurt is mixed thoroughly in turn the heat off and allow it to sit for a couple minutes to thicken.

Serving Ideas:
I had mine with some buttered english muffins but toasted french bread would also be great or even garlic bread. The sauce makes a nice gravy for mashed potatoes. A crisp salad is a good contrast too.

Variations:
Curry seasoning would be really good if you want something spicier. For a sweeter take on it rosemary and honey would also work well.

Dilly Beans!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:00:00 +0000

I love pickles, they are a serious obsession of mine. So tonight I made some spicy dilly beans. If you aren't familiar with this wonderful food, dilly beans are dill pickled green beans and are fantastic.

I wrote up the recipe for this recipe on my Dilly Beans squidoo lens so go there for how to make them and some information on home canning,

Unlike last year I managed to make them without scalding my hands thanks to a new pair of tongs that work much better for taking the jars out of the hot water bath.

Fresh dill, peppercorns, garlic, and jalepeno peppers, everything needed to make them properly spicy.

10 jars full of delicious dilly beans. I have to wait two weeks to find out how they turned out.

Slow Cooked Roast Beef

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:15:00 +0000

This is my first real post of this blog which is a step by step recipe. It's an old fashioned dish: roast beef. This is a great way to cook a cheap cut of meat but it does take all day to cook. Now I'm self-employed and work from home so I can make this recipe all the time, for those of you with 9-5 jobs you'll want to save this for a day off.

This recipe is an amalgam of a traditional roast beef recipe, few tricks I've learned, and my own experimentation. Don't worry though, it's pretty easy and once it's in the oven you can pretty much forget about it except for checking the meat thermometer once in a while. This is my hunk o'beast: a little over 2 1/2 lbs of beef chuck roast. This is a good method for roast beef to make sandwiches.

I like to start this the night before to let the roast really soak up the seasoning mix I put on it but you can do it just before cooking. I use this same basic rub on a lot of meats, it's wonderful on pork ribs too.

Seasoning Rub Mix:

1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
ground cayenne pepper (I use about 1/4 teaspoon, use more if you like more heat up to 1 teaspoon)

I spread the rub on all side of my roast and put it covered in the fridge overnight, if doing this the day of cooking let it sit on the meat at least 20 minutes.

It's the day of roasting. I don't have a roasting rack but that's okay, I like my method better. Cut up about 1/2 cup each of carrots and onions (celery too if you have any but I don't this time) and lay that down on the bottom of your roasting pan. I learned this trick from the show Good Eats but Alton Brown was using it for making roast chicken not beef.

Before putting the roast in the oven it needs to be seared, this will give the outside a lot of flavor and crust up that seasoning so it does't all fall off in the oven. I heat up about 2 tablespoons of butter (you could use oil but I like the flavor of butter) in a skillet and sear all the sides of the meat. About 2-3 minutes per side.

Now place the roast on top of the vegetables in your roasting pan, insert your meat thermometer into the center of the roast, and cover it. Place it in the oven on your lowest temperature setting (mine is 170 F). Now if you have a handy digital one you might be able to set it to beep for you when it's at 140 F but I only have an old fashioned probe so I'll need to check on it every hour or so. Minimum time to cook a roast this size is about 4 hours.

Okay here's the roast at just over 140 F. I've removed the lid and I'll fast cook it really hot for a short amount of time to brown up the outside some more. I just turned on the broiler and waited about 10 minutes. Then remove the roast from the oven and transfer it to a plate to rest covered with aluminum foil.

It;s very important to let meat, especially large pieces like roasts, rest for a while after cooking. If you immediately cut into the meat lots of the juices will run out and the meat will be dry. With this roast even after resting 20 minutes it leaked a lot of juices but not enough to dry it out.

I removed all the vegetables from the pan, they've done their job and will be going to my Dad's pig. I put the pan on the stove over medium heat, mix a tablespoon of cornstarch with a cup of water and add that to the pan.

So here is the finished roast, you can see that even after 4 1/2 hours in the oven it is still a little pink and that is exactly what you want to see. You can see my dinner with some delicious corn to go with it and the gravy.

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:40:00 +0000

I'm finally starting a food blog after numerous requests on Twitter for one. I plan to post my thoughts on cooking, recipes I've tried or created, cookbook reviews, raising my own food, and because I plan to be moving into my own place shopping for my very first kitchen!