Whew, Where to Start

I started writing this post almost a week ago. I'm just going to throw it out there before this gets even more embarrassing.

The past couple of weekends have been all about cooking. The weeks have been all about writing (and a crappy but necessary work project). There's no "where I've been" post in two weeks now because I haven't been anywhere; I've been writing. That's good. I hope. Though it is making me cranky when I get pulled away from it to do other things, and I am consumed with worry that I am going to finish my outline far shy of the wordcount I want. I am discarding a fair amount of the alpha text as I rewrite. We shall see.

On to the food. I still need to type up some recipes, but I can at least get the links out of the way. I did indeed make chicken vindaloo, and it was awesome, very close to restaurant quality. I think next time I will use thighs on the bone, and I suspect that will make them ever closer. To go with it were Penang Pickled Vegetables, or as close as I could get with what I had on hand. Those were also very good. So was the Salmon Chipotle Chowder (as you can see, it was a spicy weekend!). I would make all of these again without hesitating.

The soup project has gone off the rails a bit, even though I got some pretty new bowls from Crate & Barrel. I may get back on track this weekend, but we shall see.

And a few more photos, to catch me up. I am a bad 365er; I have missed many days now, but I'm trying.

365 #23 Yet another view of Boston. I wanted to get the shadows, but I was talking to a co-worker and missed the time.

365 #24 Buying spree at Harvard Book Store

365 #25 Cheddar-Chive Bread via Dorie Greenspan - it rocks

365 #26 Dinosaurs

365 #27 New C&B bowls

365 #28 Days getting longer

365 #29 Miriam 4 months

365 #29 The trees can tell

365 #30 Public discussion on art restoration in the Red Line

365 #31 Mussel shell in a snowbank on First St., Cambridge. I have no idea.

Gearing Up for the New Year

The office last week was tomb-like, a handful of us sprinkled through the big room, trading "sure is quiet" "yep, sure is" comments when we passed. I have been tidying up old projects and giving some thought to new ones. Home has been noisier, but with nothing much going on in terms of the holiday. It's been an exciting year, and we just weren't ready yet to go out and do anything major.

The Weekly Recipe Project is giving me trouble; when I look at it under that name, it seems impossibly limited. Only 52 recipes? I probably have that many online recipes bookmarked, never mind a hundred-odd cookbooks and binders of clippings. How to approach the task of selecting my pool? I browse through blogs, look at files I have saved for years, visualize my bookshelves. Perhaps I should restrict the project to soup recipes, or bread, or desserts? Take one recipe from a different cookbook every week?

I was up early New Years day--for creatures that sleep so damn much themselves, cats don't grasp the idea of sleeping in--and decided to get the grocery list/menu planning out of the way. I already had one new recipe lined up for later in the week, but in the spirit of starting the new year right, I grabbed my new copy of At Home with Madhur Jaffrey and started with the fish chapter.

I made this pretty much as written, except I don't have any asefetida and my fenugreek is ground, not whole. I added more cayenne than specified, but that was by mistake--the result was intensely hot, and made me wish I had some naan. I served this with rice alone, but it would make a nice component in a multi-course meal. It came together quickly and without much fussing, and made a nice change from my usual fish standbys.

Fish and Peas in a Fennel-Fenugreek Sauce

1 lb fillet of cod, hake, or halibut, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick
1 tsp salt, divided
pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne, divided
1/8 tsp ground turmeric
3 Tbsp mustard, olive, or canola oil
1/8 tsp ground asafetida
1/4 tsp whole mustard seeds
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/4 tsp whole fennel seeds
1/8 tsp whole fenugreek seeds
3 Tbsp plain yogurt
4 medium tomatoes, coarsely grated (I used a can of tomato sauce)
1 c fresh or frozen and defrosted peas

1. Sprinkle the fish on both sides with 1/4 tsp salt, freshly ground black pepper, 1/4 tsp cayenne, and the turmeric. Set aside 30 minutes or longer, refrigerating if necessary.
2. Put the oil in a frying pan and set on medium-high. Put in the asafetida, then the mustard, cumin, fennel, and fenugreek seeds. 
3. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop, add the yogurt. Stir until it almost disappears.*
4. Add the tomatoes, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cayenne, and more pepper if desired. Stir and cook for five minutes, until tomatoes thicken slightly. 
5. Add the peas, stir, and continue to cook another minute on medium heat.**
6. Lay the fish down in the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the fish and bring to a simmer. Partially cover and poach fish on medium-low heat until just cooked through, 7-10 minutes. Add water if the pan dries out.

* Mine did not disappear, but left little spongy bits like tofu behind. I used Greek-style yogurt, so maybe it had more solids.
** I added the peas near the end. Why would you cook peas for 10 minutes?

No pictures because my five-year-old camera died last week. I am trying to decide between size and features with a new one.

I am in the middle of a four-day weekend, trying to get the place back to some semblance of normality. More tidying than cleaning, trying to find homes for new things and continue whittling down the old.

On other resolution-related fronts, I sent Empire off to Dragon Moon Press, which was having an open sub month, and have put together a list of agents to query. The first chapter of Fury's Flight went to the writing group for crit, though I haven't psyched myself up sufficiently to read the feedback yet.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I seem to be on an Indian kick lately... this particular recipe was selected because, last time I went to Zigo for lunch, their trusty chicken tikka--one of my all-time favorite things to eat--was... horrible. The chicken was overcooked, half the rice was mushy and half crunchy, and the sauce lacked zing. What's worse, I was eating in a rush between meetings and didn't have time in which I might go back and complain. As I resentfully finished my "meal," I grumbled to myself that I could do better. Well, I had this past Monday off, and damned if I wasn't going to use some of my free time to cook a meal that would erase the memory of that terrible tikka.

Much of Monday morning was occupied by my continued hunt for a decent grocery store in the Worcester area. I have finally grown sick to death of the Webster Square Shaws--on Saturday I went in there to pick up game snacks, and every vegetable in the place looked like it had been there for days. Even the squashes were wrinkly. (Squash is the easiest thing on the planet to store, people; I can keep it on my counter for a week or more just dandy. What the heck are you doing to it?!) So I went up to the Shrewsbury Stop N Shop to see if it was any better, and it was! Not swoonworthy like the Wegmans my lucky mother has, but a big improvement on what I've been seeing by my place lately. On the way I passed an Indian grocery, which I will have to check out another time. I have never wanted to be one of those people who goes to four different stores in the course of their normal shopping--I spend too much time in the car during the week to enjoy running around in it on my days off--but apparently the alternative is making my family endure my grousing about our produce every week until summer and the farmer's markets return.

But anyway. After my shopping trip, I went to Borders (it was right there...) and used some of my Christmas money to pick up Martha Stewart's Cookies (because I don't have enough cookbooks, or enough about cookies... right). Then it was home for lunch and then out in the back yard to play in the snow with L, then back in for hot chocolate, and eventually a movie. Around four I put the marinade together and glooped the chicken into it.

Here is the recipe I used: Chicken Tikka Masala. And it was in fact considerably better than the disastrous one I had last "enjoyed," though I again seem to have overcooked the breast meat a bit--that's becoming a bad habit. All the cumin gave it a wonderful smoky heat without being overwhelming, and I liked the paprika. My changes to the recipe were as follows:

• I didn't add any salt. I'm not by any means a salt-free sort of person, but a total of seven teaspoons? Ick! Between the spices and canned ingredients, I figured there would be enough flavor to go around. Next time I will add a bit, but certainly less than they suggest.
• Again, I had no jalopeno, or other hot peppers for that matter. I don't know why I keep forgetting those little suckers. Again, I put some extra ginger in.
• I didn't have any tomato sauce, either. I used a can of Muir Glen diced tomatoes, which I nearly always have on hand. I think they represented something of an improvement.
• My cream was way past its prime, so I used about 2/3 of a can of non-light coconut milk.
  

I also made Saffron Rice with Peas and Garbanzo Beans--an old stand-by and one of the few ways in which I can be convinced to consume peas. The recipe as written makes a ton, but I figured I can take some to work this week. (I go through phases where I am so sick of sandwiches that I can scarcely stand it, but I seldom have the planning capacity to prepare anything else for lunches on office days.)

I'm trying to work on my photography. Here, for kicks, some of my prep work:

The meal was very satisfying, though my daughter refused to countenance any of it and requested toast for dinner--she has been known to eat chickpeas on occasion, but apparently this was not one of those days. And JJ is still battling tummy bug; it hasn't knocked him for quite the same loop it did his sister, but he hasn't been sleeping well, so neither are his parents.

Chicken Biryani

Life has been unexpectedly hectic this week, with a lively meeting schedule, L's tummy bug, and D's newly-developed knee problem. Times like these I can't imagine not having a menu plan; getting off the highway at 5:30, getting home and having to decide then and there what to make for dinner would result in a much higher percentage of our food budget going to takeout food.

But this week I do have a plan, and I was even able to fit in a few minutes over the weekend to look through the latest issues of my cooking magazines and find a new recipe to try. Cooking Light's latest rendition of Chicken Biryani is my first four-star recipe of the year (I'm going to start putting star ratings in the labels so I can find them again later - not sure why I never thought of that!). It's almost no work at all, and though the result might not be quite what you'd get at a restaurant, it's surely good enough to make a standard at home.

I didn't have a jalapeno, but I upped the ginger, and the result was pleasantly warm without being overly spicy. It took just about the thirty minutes called for, making it quite doable on a weeknight--especially since only the first fifteen of that is "active time." I often have problems when making dishes where the rice cooks along with other ingredients, but it was perfectly done. It made for a very satisfying, warming meal on a cold night.

In other news, I've really been sort of hyperfocused on food lately. I think it's the cold weather, or the passage of the holidays, but all I want to do is burrow into a warm place full of good things to eat. I want to make bread and soups and braise things, I want to have warmth. It's not that I mind the weather, per se; I used to say that I hated winter, but now it seems to present an opportunity of sorts. I sit at my desk drinking tea all day, writing online help and dreaming of muffins, chocolate, stews. Unfortunately I can't spend all day cooking even on the weekends, so I've been doing a certain amount of vicarious living through the written word. I am thoroughly out of temper with Bon Appetit after their recent redesign of the magazine, so when my subscription there runs out I will not renew it. But I might replace it with Fine Cooking.

Yellow Lentil Dal

Some months ago, on a whim, I bought a package of yellow lentils. Since then, they have mostly been lugged around by my son, who loves pulling things off my "pantry" shelves. Also on a whim, I bought some tandoori seasoning with one of my Penzey's orders. Together, they suggested a meal for a night when I thought I would have some free time to fuss around in the kitchen.

Last night I finally opened the darned lentils, and I'm glad that I did! This recipe I found through a Google search turned out to be reasonably easy and very, very good.

Yellow Lentil Dal

I just did plain rice with it, feeling like I had taken on too much already, and tandoori chicken (replacing the spice mix in the recipe with my Penzey's stuff), which didn't turn out right since I forgot to take off the skin, and then undercooked it a tad. Next time I will try to plan better.

JJ had his one-year checkup yesterday. He's in the 95th percentile for height, but at 21 lb and change, only 25th for weight -- running around all day long will do that! Everything is spot on, his doctor tells us. He got two vaccinations, but was in a pretty chipper mood despite that, at least until he fell off the bed right before bedtime. Just a bump and a scare, fortunately. I am trying to plan a grocery shopping run while he toddles around the place right now, since he got up much earlier than I was hoping he would.

Cumin-Scented Samosas with Mint Raita

Yes, while the rest of the country cooked burgers on the grill, I made Indian food. I can't help but feel that a true foodie would have done the burgers, but perhaps used Kobe beef and put something unexpected in the potato salad... It was the wrap-up to a surpassingly gorgeous day, hot and clear, the sort of weather event planners pray for. We went to Elm Park in the morning, put on the year's first sunscreen, and spent a pleasant hour and a half there. A couple of herons ignored us magnificently, and I actually saw one catch a fish. There were surprisingly few people, but perhaps things livened up in the afternoon.

L.'s very big on water right now, and mostly what she wanted to do was sit by the pond and throw gravel into it, or get a stick and pretend to be fishing. Eventually we tired ourselves out and went home to relax for a while. JJ made this difficult; he has a bit of a cold and is having a hard time getting down to sleep, making for an intermittently cranky baby. I made bread, D and L went out to run errands, I leafed through recipes, and eventually it was time to start dinner. Since it was supposed to be warm, and I was figuring on having a fair amount of time to muck around in the kitchen, I'd settled on a couple of new recipes.

I love samosas, but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure since I'm sure that they're just plain terrible for me. I had never made them at home, either, assuming them to be difficult. The recipe from last night deals handily with both of those by using phyllo dough for a wrapper, and the results are baked rather than fried - a handy little package to fold up and to eat, the filling so good that I was eating it out of the bowl for a good part of the afternoon. I'd really be tempted to make a smaller version of these for a party, since they're easy to eat out of hand. I've never used phyllo before, but it turned out to be quite easy to work with.

Cumin-Scented Samosas with Mint Raita

I made them without the raita because there was no mint to be had, and as a side dish for a curried pea frittata with fresh tomato chutney (Bon Appetit). I didn't want to have two menu items that included peas, so for the frittata I used some sweet peppers I needed to use up instead. The chutney made what would otherwise have been a so-so egg dish (partly because I overcooked it, admittedly) a standout.

Pork Vindaloo with Raita

While the nation's financial institutions may be doing a good impression of a sand castle with the tide coming in, at least we have food (um, for now).

It is a very rare thing for me to taste something I've made and say, "Wow, that's good!" This recipe elicited that reaction. Most Cooking Light recipes tone the spices down too far for my taste, but this one is blissfully hot as written. I cheated on the raita and didn't drain the yogurt; I think it would have been better if I had. Next time I make this I want to try to thicken up the sauce a bit.

My plan to make naan was unfortunately derailed. Leaky diapers and J's decision to compete for the Middleweight Spitup Champion title necessitated that he receive a bath, pronto. Maybe next time....