V-Egg-etables, yay!

We are licking our chops with this delicious and easy 1-2-3 summer dinner. Here we go.

First we chopped up some small red tomatoes into bite size pieces, covered them with water and a half tablespoon of salt, brought them to a boil, and let them simmer for about 10-15 minutes. We stuck a fork in one to test.

Then we halved and sliced 2 leeks, discarding all hardy dark green parts and tons of dirt hiding between the layers.

We picked a good couple of tablespoons worth of thyme leaves.

Sliced half a head of savoy cabbage.

And cut off the hardy ends of 2 bushels of green asparagus.

Next we sautéed in olive oil over medium heat - "1" - the leek with a little salt and a few dried chili flakes ...

and stuck our nose in it. Oh my!! For 5 minutes. Then - "2" - the cabbage for 5 more minutes. And lastly - "3' - the asparagus for another 5 minutes.

For the finishing touch we dropped 5 eggs on top, covered them with a lid, waited a few minutes, and served.

Voila. A shout out to Jamie Oliver's magazine for this wonderful dish. Happy forks all around.

Potato Salad

For a summer barbeque we gave this potato salad a try.

First we cut up a  2lb medley of colorful small new potatoes into small bite size chunks. We placed them into a pot, covered them with water, added about half a tablespoon of salt, and brought them to a boil. After about 10 minutes of simmering we checked on the potatoes. We tried to get them out just as they turned soft and before they got mushy.

Then we sliced up and fried 10 strips of bacon. We placed both the taters and the bacon into the freezer right away to cool them down. We also tossed about half a tablespoon worth of mustard seeds into the bacon grease and placed a lid over them. We removed them right after a few moments as they started to pop like corn kernels.

When everything had cooled down, we used our hands to mix together the potatoes, the bacon, the mustard seeds, a few sliced scallions, and some white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste.

There you have it. Gorgeous!

To round out the affair we prepared and grilled up a few shish kebabs, ...

sausages and hot dogs.

Grandma's Beef Stew

When snow came down on a perfectly fine spring day in North Carolina's Piedmont we decided to test out an all American old-fashioned beef stew.

We gave the whole affair 2 1/2 hours with plenty of time to skip out. First we dusted 1 1/2 lb. of chopped up stew meat in a quarter cup of flour and a good bit of pepper.

Then we browned it with olive oil in our casserole pot in 2 batches.

We took out the meat and added about 1 cup of red wine and roughly 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Over medium heat we loosened all the crunchy beef bits and then added 2 bay leaves, 1 quart of beef broth, and the meat, brought the whole shebang to a boil and let it simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours.

Then we pealed and chopped 1 medium onion, 5 carrots, and 3 potatoes. They were added to the stew for another 30 minutes. At the end we measured the consistency of the broth and took off the lid for a while. We also nibbled on the potatoes to call for dinner when they were just right.

A little salt and pepper - Voila! Mama and Papa got a finish off the left over wine as we dug in. It was just right. Warming our bones and leaving us without a care in the world. Of course the snow was all melted and gone by the time we were done.

Fish, Broccoli, Potatoes, and Quark

Yup. Quark. That's straight out of our German cookbook and it tastes like spring. It's a delicious dairy dipping sauce for your taters. Oh yes! Somebody could make some real money selling this stuff stateside. You could have Quark-Counter-Franchises. You know. With Quark Merchandise and all.

But we digress. Back to the food at hand. We started by marinating 4 rock fish filets in a sauce of roughly 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 sliced cloves of garlic, the zest of 1 organic lemon, salt, and pepper.

We mixed it all through with our hands and stuck it into the fridge for an hour.

Then we washed and cut up a few handful of colorful potatoes of various sizes, covered them with water, added half a tablespoon of salt, brought them to a boil and cooked them for about 15 minutes till we were satisfied with their tenderness. 

At the same time we brought a second pot of water to a boil. We washed and cut 2 heads of broccoli into their florets and dropped them into the boiling water for only about 2 minutes, nibbling to ensure a good texture. We fished them out and prepped them with the juice of 1 lemon, salt, and pepper.

Last but not least we made the Quark. For this we mixed up Greek yogurt with half as much sour cream, olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon, salt, and pepper. Then we picked some herbs from the garden, namely chives and parsley, chopped them up, and added them to the mixture.

12 minutes before dinner time we got the marinated fish filets from the fridge and fried them in a pan from both sides till we liked them.

Mmmmmmmmmh! Yummy. Everybody was happy. No leftovers! 

Fish & Chips

We have been living in the American South for over 15 years. The Deep-fry Belt of everything; and only now managed to try deep-frying something. And of course we chose British Fish and Chips. Go figure.

We leafed through the pages of Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food to figure this out. It took us about an hour. Fish and Chips and Tartar Sauce. All from scratch. And we mean scratch. We even made a basic mayonnaise. We kid you not.

We should say at this point that we ignored the first and probably most important rule about deep-frying: do this outside. Our house intensely smelled like a fast food joint for a good day or so. Also, what is one to do with all that frying oil afterwards? We'll take any good suggestions.

But fun it was. Here we go. First we cut 1.5 pounds of white fluffy cod fish into small pieces. We salted them well, covered them up, and stuck them into the fridge for an hour to have some moisture drawn out.

Next we made mayonnaise. We whisked up 2 egg yokes and 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard and then slowly added 1 and 1/4 cup of olive oil. Drip by drip, continuously whisking. It took a good 15 minutes or so. At the end we added 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar to loosen it up and adjust the taste. Lastly we added a little salt. We think that the taste of the olive oil was most prominent and that using a especially smooth and tasty one would be worthwhile.

We took half of the mayonnaise and turned it into a tartar sauce. We finely chopped up 1 tablespoon of capers, 5 baby cornichons, 2 anchovies, leaves of 6 parsley sprigs, and the zest of 1 lemon. It all got mixed into the mayonnaise. We stuck our fingers into it and added lemon juice and salt till we liked the taste.

Next we cut 2 pounds of potatoes into sticks, keeping the skin on for the "Chips".

We put a pot onto the stove and emptied a bottle of sunflower oil into it. I am sure we'll try out different kinds of oil in the future. We got it to a medium heat to parboil the potatoes for about eight minutes or so. 

We retrieved them from the oil with a slotted spoon and then really cranked up the heat.

Now we prepared the batter for the final act. We mixed a 3/4 cup of flour with 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder and a good portion of an Indian Pale Ale until we had a smooth but gooey batter. In a separate bowl we put more flour. Now we dragged the fish cuts through the flour, shaking off any lose dust, and into the batter, slathering them well, without any dripping.

Now we dunked 3 to 4 pieces and a handful chips into the raging oil, one portion at a time, serving them piecemeal. Each time we fished the potatoes out first and tapped them dry with a towel. We simply watched them turn the right color to time the right extraction point. Next came the fish.

We served them as you should. In newspaper. We made sure to use the day's print for extra freshness. That way you get food and something new to read while you wait for more. Oooooooh yummy. A good and greasy scrumptiousness!

Chicken Stew

This must be the lazy cook's chicken stew. An easy 45 minutes of simmering. See for yourself:

We chopped up 1 large onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 celery stalks, 3 carrots, and  2 bell peppers.

All that we cooked in a bit of olive oil for about 5 minutes.

In the meantime we peeled and cut up 1.5 pounds of yellow potatoes and then added them to the veggies.

Then we added 2 quarts of chicken broth and a little salt, brought it to a boil and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

We cut up 1.5lb of assorted chicken parts and 1 zucchini and added them along with

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, a little dried basil, dried sage, and dried thyme leaves. We brought it back to boil again and let it simmer for another 15 minutes.

At the end we removed a handful of potatoes, smashed them up with a fork, and added them back to thicken the soup. A little salt and pepper to taste.

Voila.

Pork Chops, Beans, and Mashers

We tried this fun and easy recipe for a dinner with pork chops, green beans, and mashed potatoes. Best part about it was that we got to use our new aquisition, a battle tested cast iron skillet.

First we got the veggies prepped. So we peeled and chopped 3 pounds of yellow potatoes, placed them in a pot, covered them with water and added a teaspoon or so of salt.

We also washed and trimmed 1 pound of green beans.

Next we took 4 pork chops with bones and smothered them with mustard and Demerara sugar.

We also poured 2 cups of veggie broth into a pot and added a couple of rosemary sprigs.

Now every thing was ready to turn on the stove. For real for real. We started all four burners and turned the oven to 350F. In one pot we got water to boil, in another the potatoes, in a third the broth. On the fourth burner we placed that cat iron skillet, got it nice and hot, added olive oil, and placed the pork chops in it. We seared the meat from both sides. For maybe ten minutes or so.

Then we shoved the skillet, meat and all, into the oven for another ten minutes.

When the water was boiling we added the beans for just about 6 minutes.

Shortly before dinner we added 2 tablespoons of butter, salt, and pepper to the broth. We also added the juices from the skillet and

put it all through a sieve for a sauce.

The only thing left were the potatoes. We drained them and mashed them up with more butter, heavy cream, salt, and a couple handfuls of Parmesan to taste. That was it: Green beans, mashed potatoes, sauce and pork chops

Oooooh yes. Goodness on a plate. A good mouthful of heartwarming comfort.