Thanksgiving!!

No matter how dormant I let this blog lie, I always try to do a Thanksgiving post. This year's Thanksgiving was wonderful. I spent the night at my mother's, and I cooked there. The only thing I prepared the day before was my only new recipe. And hoo boy, they were worth it. Behold, the eggy cheesy buttery goodness that is gougères:

I stumbled across the recipe when I went to the Splendid Table website for something completely different - I can't even remember what I was there for, originally. These are simultaneously eggy and cheesy and light and air filled, all at the same time. They are similar to gruyère laden mini popovers. I crisped them right before dinner, and they were fabulous. I also recreated the chorizo stuffed mushrooms of Thanksgiving past, and they were a hit again. They disappeared. 

Every thing else was very traditional. I took my time on Thursday. Here is a butter and Trocomare slow roasted turkey. I put a quartered onion, a bundle of fresh thyme and a tangerine with some of its skin removed inside. It turned out perfectly.

I made the cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries, tangerine juice, tangerine zest, lime juice, sugar, salt, fresh mint and Grand Marnier. It was divine.

 Very simple pan roasted green beans with shallots. 

 Delicious sweet potatoes! I didn't add any sugar or sweetener to the actual sweet potatoes - they didn't need any. I just added butter and mashed them. The marshmallows were left over from a recent camping trip, and I couldn't resist. The nuts are candied pralines. With so much sweetness in the toppings, I really didn't think the sweet potatoes needed to be doctored at all.

As a nod to Hanukkah, I made a boatload of stuffing with challah. I also made cornbread stuffing with sausage and apple. Both were so delicious. I think the cornbread stuffing may have been my favorite thing on the menu. 

Here is the whole table, including mashed gold potatoes, salad, and the cornbread stuffing. I have been doing this for so many years now, it's very comfortable, laid back and fun. I don't really need recipes for most of it. I consult a few recipes for ratios, but that's usually in the middle of the process, just to confirm what's already happening. 

I hope you all had fun cooking and eating with you and yours!

Whole red snapper with coconut curry

I felt inspired today, and ended up experimenting with some really good results. I bought two whole, beautiful red snapper today at the Yellow Green Farmers Market. I always made excuses in the past as to why I couldn't cook whole fish. S said he would be willing to give it a try. I also bought some lovely curry powder. I looked up a few curry recipes, and whole snapper recipes, including the recipe on the back of my can of coconut milk. I ended up finagling together a recipe, and it turned out marvelously.

First, starting with good fish is important. This snapper was frozen, but the purveyor said it cleaned and flash frozen immediately after it was caught. When I defrosted it, the fish was clean smelling, its eyes were red, which means it is most likely real red snapper, and the eyes were clear, not cloudy.

Based on the recipes I had skimmed on making whole snapper, I scored the flesh by cutting three diagonal lines on each side with a sharp knife, the full thickness of the flesh. I salted and dredged the first fish in flour, then put it in a few inches of hot vegetable oil in a large skillet, enough to submerge it about half way. I let it cook for about five minutes or so, then flipped it. The skin was crispy and brown.

 While the fish was cooking, a put a few tablespoons of oil in a small pot and warmed it over medium heat. I added my new curry to the oil and bloomed it. I added some grated fresh ginger, some diced garlic, and some lime zest. Then I added a few splurts of oyster sauce. I poured a can of coconut milk in, and heated it to a boil. I threw in a whole cayenne pepper from my garden. Sorry, that was the only pepper I had. After it simmered for a while and thickened, I squeezed in the juice of a whole large lime, and turned off the heat.

When the first fish was done, I took it out and kept it warm in the toaster oven and fried the second one. When they were done, I served it over rice. I poured the curry sauce over the fish, cut up some fresh mango from the tree around the corner and put it on the side, and garnished it with a healthy pile of chopped cilantro and basil, which was also from my garden. It was knockout good. So good. S and I left heads and bones.

Simple lunch

I just made a simple and delicious lunch. I ate it before I could take any pictures of it. Hell, I ate it, standing, in the kitchen, before I could even bother fetching a plate!

I took a piece of store bought whole wheat flat bread, made some quick homemade chimichurri (yum), spread it on the flatbread, and put some chopped roasted chicken I had leftover from last night's dinner.

I stuck that in the toaster oven, and had super simple gourmet tasting almost healthy flat bread pizza lunch!

Resurrection

I have been cooking, but not as much. I haven't been blogging at all.

But, I made something very cool, and wanted to post about it. I made an almost healthy version of a Spanish tortilla. For the uninitiated, the spanish tortilla is in the omelette/ savory egg custard dish family, but unlike an omelette, quiche or fritatta, the Spanish tortilla does not have cheese. It usually has potatoes, and sometimes has peppers and chorizo. I have seen one version in a local Spanish restaurant with cheese melted over the top, but that is unusual, and there is no cheese in the actual tortilla.

I just wish I had used a 10 inch skillet instead of a 12 inch. I don't have a nice 10 inch nonstick skillet. I love my new 12 inch one, but the tortilla came out a little thinner than I would have liked. It was still very good. The kids loved it.

I loosely followed this recipe, but instead of using potatoes, I used cauliflower. It was incredibly good. Cauliflower are even the right color to substitute potatoes, and the texture and flavor worked out perfectly.

Crispy salmon skin!

I have been eating a lot of smoked fish, particularly salmon and trout. I generally don't eat the skin, and have been giving it to my pets.

I had a lovely piece of salmon skin today, and I thought of tasty crunchy salmon skin sushi rolls I have enjoyed in the past. So, I sliced the skin into thin strips, heated some olive oil in a small pan, and threw the salmon skin in. It spattered a lot. And, whoa, Nelly! It's delicious!

Sorry, pets.

Yes, wow, I still have a food blog!

Holy moly, it has been a while. I have cooked and eaten lots. But, I've also been really busy with the last year of medical school and the whole single mom thing.

I'll post some pics and a retrospective soon. But, in the meantime, let's talk anti-inflammatory diet. And pine nuts.

I may have an autoimmune inflammatory disease. Well, actually, I definitely do. I have psoriasis. But, I also may have had a small flare of psoriatic arthritis. And it may not have been my first.

So, one of my ways of approaching this is to reform my diet a bit. Get me more almost healthy. Get it? Get it? The title means so much. I am going to try to adhere more to the whole anti-inflammatory diet thing. The anti-inflammatory diet has elements of a lot of other eating programs that purport to improve health: avoid processed and simple carbs, increase vegetables, increase good fats, increase fish and lean meats, and emphasize antioxidant rich plant foods.

It also helps out hat I already like these foods. I just went to Costco and bought a bunch of smoked fish, and a huge bag of pine nuts.

Today,so far, I had a salad made from my friend's home grown butter crunch lettuce, smoked salmon fillet, flaked, and toasted pine nuts. I made a simple dressing with agave and soy sauce. I figured the salmon and pine nuts were oily enough that I didn't need extra oil in the dressing. It was delicious.

I had a bowl of a close approximation of this Indian spiced carrot ginger soup, which was also delicious. I put toasted pine nuts on top.

I also made a batch of an approximation of this Cabbage Crunch salad. As you may have guessed, I substituted toasted pine nuts for the almonds and sesame seeds.

I also made fresh basil and parsley pesto last week. I still have more pine nuts.

*Dusts cobwebs off*

I have been cooking. I swear.

I have just been really, really, really busy. Med school will do that to ya.

Anyway, I will try to post some pics and some tastiness soon. Now, on to making cookies and steak fried rice:)