wolffish brabant with mustard greens

I passed by Pescatore downstairs in the Grand Central Market and decided to be adventurous. This piece of wolffish was one of 3 new types of fish I tried.

I saw a recipe on CHOW that involved endives and potatoes and was sold.

Earlier that day I'd made mustard greens flavored with bacon. I got them both at the Union Square Greenmarket.

My supermarket didn't have Belgian endive so I used what they had.

I separated about 4 medium endives till they were all just leaves and sliced 2 yukon gold potatoes very thin.

I put the endive in the pan first with a generous pat of butter and sauteed till they were wilted.

Putting more butter in the pan I added the potatoes and cooked them till they started to form a nice golden crust on the bottom.

I didn't have shallots so I used wonderful garlic scapes. I also didn't have white wine on me *gasp* and since I didn't want to use red I used a good slug of Calvados instead.

I also added a turbot fillet (#2) to the pan to have something to eat at lunch the next day. It broke apart but was delicious anyway!

gundi, gnudi, gnudi!

I did state that I made way more gnudi than I'd posted so here are some more pics

Here's another picture of batch with chopped ham, fried sage and garlic scapes


Here's some with lucini tomato basil sauce, more scapes and bacon hidden underneath

And again with ham, bacon and everything else above. I also added some extra parm to the top.


I hope they freeze well. I have a serving left up in the freezer for the week after next.

ricotta and the search for the perfect gnudi

Boy did I try to recreate the gnudi at the Spotted Pig: three different batches of them, to be exact.




I'm going to keep trying, but they're just not coming out the same no matter how tasty they are.

The first time I used my homemade whole milk ricotta and that was good. By the way, here's a picture of the finished cheese:


Anyway with that cheese I made the gnudi below and they kind of flattened out. I used this recipe from Gothamist's Eating In.



I figured I'd go to the Union Square greenmarket and pick up some sheep's milk ricotta if that made the difference. I tried this way of making them from Zen Can Cook (but without the pastry bag).


That time the semolina on the outside mostly came off the gnudi (I left them in a dish with semolina surrounding them overnight and the rest of one day.





I added ham and fried sage and browned them a bit. Both batches had lemon added. As you can see from this picture my iphone takes crappy pics in comparison to my old one, but whatever I'll deal!



So I tried a third batch with my ricotta and the sheep's milk mixed together in case it was the sheep one not being wet enough. I tested two out and poached them right away and they kept their shape until I took them out of the water. Then they plopped into flat cheesy blobs.

This morning I browned some for work and the blobby ones completely fell apart in the pan while the others (from the second batch) were ok. For some silly reason I decided I needed to add four to the pan to make a roux for a thicker sauce, but I added too much. I spooned half the gravy (for that's what it looked like) out and added the lemon juice. Then I just let it cook. It was surprisingly still tasty. There are no pictures of this embarrassment, however.

You have no idea how many little gnudi remain in my fridge. I'm going to have to "make" my roommate eat a bunch of them so I don't get sick!

In closing I feel so much like the king of Swamp Castle from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England. "

One day I will be queen of gnudi that taste like something from the Spotted Pig. Until then I shall keep trying!

today is homemade day

Made homemade mayo and watched it break twice before I said screw it and just added another egg. Reaffirmed the fact that I don't like mayo much unless it's already in a salad. Scared to try the chicken salad I made. I might make the rest of the mayo into a cilantro lemon number to go on... something.

I also made fresh whole milk ricotta using this recipe.
It's draining now.

Why haven't I eaten? Here's a draining picture.



more to come when it's done!

Yes, it's that yellow.

cooking slow by necessity and Dreamfields pasta

Now I love pasta. I adore it, but sometimes the carbs don't love me so much. When that happens I go and get a box of Dreamfields (WHY DON'T YOU MAKE ANGEL HAIR OR SMALLER SPAGHETTI?!)



...ahem anyway. It tastes like pasta because it is pasta, but they've done something special to the carbs to block them from being absorbed. Apparently this doesn't hold true upon vigorous reheating or possibly cooking in tomato sauce (but then why the lasagna? I'm going to mark this as a pasturban legend).


So last night I got home quite late and didn't have much time to cook since I had to raid in WoW (my second job, sometimes)

Here's what I did.

• The water I had boiling i set to very low so it was barely simmering.
• I'd cooked a few pieces of bacon and ate them while I put a sliced vidalia onion in their oil, added a little butter and put it on almost-off-low.
• When we wiped on XT hard mode I'd go and check on the onions and eventually added some garlic to them. I also added cayenne, oregano, basil, black peper and thyme
• Back to raiding...
• Smelled the garlic and added sliced crimini mushrooms to the pan
• Raid
• I let that go till the mushrooms were quite done and just turned the whole thing off.
• When we were done raiding (after 1am, we started at 9pm) I put the water back on high.
• I added sliced chicken breast to the pan and the juice of one lemon
• Cooked it till it was done and ooh.. remember not to overcook the Dreamfields pasta because it turns to mush. The spaghetti takes 9 mins!

I took a little bit and put it in a bowl and saved the rest for lunch today.

I also added ample amounts of parmesan.


Here's the recipe condensed:

1 chicken breast sliced
1 medium vidalia onion sliced thinly into half moons
8-10 crimini mushrooms
8 cloves garlic (I do love this, use it to your taste)
3 slices of bacon
butter, olive oil
spices like oregano, thyme, basil, black pepper and cayenne
a dash of soy sauce
the juice of one lemon
pasta to serve it over
Parmesan

cook bacon in large skillet and reserve (or eat!). Place onions into bacon grease and set the eye to low. Add a pat of butter. Cook until the onions are soft and near caramelized. Add minced garlic and cook until golden. Add mushrooms and spices. Add butter or olive oil if needed.

When the mushrooms are close to done add the chicken, soy and lemon juice. Cook until just done and still tender.

Serve over pasta with ample amounts of Parmesan!
This is what it looked like before I mixed (and devoured):


Best part about the Dreamfields pasta? One serving has 5 "digestable" carbs.