My First Clafoutis

After seeing tons of clafoutis all over the blogworld, I finally decided I had to make one. Or, in this case, four. I had picked up a set of four cast iron ramekins for only $10 about a year ago, and I've only used them once, for a baked spinach and egg dish. While they do look nice stacked on my counter, they were begging to be used.

When I came across Eric Ripert's recipe for raspberry clafoutis, I decided that was the recipe to go with, not because I trusted it (what do I know about clafoutis?), but because his ramekin looks like mine!

Unfortunately, however, his clafoutis most definitely does not look like mine. I think mine were confused, and thought they were supposed to be souffles. Or because I left them in the oven a little too long, they decided to try to escape.















Speaking of confused clafoutis, I'm unsure of the correct spelling. "Clafoutis" gives 909,000 Google results, but "clafouti" only gives 187,000. But Ripert spells it "clafouti". And Wikipedia says "clafouti, sometimes spelled clafoutis". I think I'll just make sure to keep it plural, that way I won't have to worry about it.

In the end, it didn't really matter how much I screwed up, because my wanna-be clafoutisouffles sure tasted good.

Leek and Onion Tart

This recipe is courtesy of Chuck at Sunday Nite Dinner, who is also the creator of Food Gawker, the best (imho) Tastespotting replacement out there. His picture is much better than mine, go look! (Sorry, I can't be bothered to figure out anything on my camera other than the Macro button. Maybe one of these days...)
















You start by making a bread dough and caramelizing onions and leeks. A whole boatload of onions and leeks. So much of a boatload that my biggest skillet wasn't big enough, and my onions were steaming instead of caramelizing. So I removed the parchment paper and cranked up the heat a little, and all was well.

When the dough has risen and the onions are brown and sweet and happy, you stretch out the dough, spread it with mustard, spread the onions on top, and top with grated parmesan. Then bake for a while (25 minutes was enough for mine).

You end up with the best leek and onion tart you've ever tasted.

Green Chile Salsa

MIL showed me how to make her delicious green chile salsa today.















Roast, peel and stem a large skilletful of yellow chiles. You know the ones, shaped kind of like fat jalapenos, but yellow. Chop them up, seeds included, until the pieces are very small and there's a lot of liquid.

To the chiles, add 3 minced cloves of garlic, half a minced white or yellow onion, a couple chopped green onions, and a handful of chopped cilantro.

Season to taste with garlic salt, onion salt, and table salt. Yeah, that's a lot of salt products, but salsa needs salt.

Serve with anything, from meat, to eggs, to fish, or as a dip for chips.

Children took over my kitchen

Youngest and her friend decided to bake cookies for a friend's birthday. Dough, food coloring and frosting were all purchased independent of any adult intervention. Deciding to let them run with it, I advised against getting food coloring anywhere other than in the frosting, and reminded them that the oven is hot. Then I retreated to the porch, where I could hear what was going on, but wouldn't have to look at it.

Ah, the innocence of children. Well, maybe not, because I distinctly heard "nasty frosting spooge", and, while they were trying to force frosting from a syringe (?!) - "Push, Vanessa, push!", followed by "I feel like I just gave birth."

The fruits of their labor?

a mudkip (apparently a Pokemon thing):
















a BIG cookie, aka "Cookie of Epic Proportions":
















Put them together, and you get:
















Umm...aren't kids great?

Fried Rice (Again!)

It was a clean-out-the-fridge kind of day. Therefore, fried rice.















Cook bacon. Crumble. Drain grease.
Heat skillet on high. Add vegetable oil. Saute red onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, and a few chiles de arbol.
Add cold leftover rice. Mix, stir, let sit, etc. Add soy sauce, and my secret ingredients, a little Chinese black vinegar and some oyster sauce. Mix, stir, let sit, repeat.
Add frozen peas, green garbanzos and cooked bacon. Mix some more. It's ready when you get some crusty rice bits, or when you're too hungry and it's too hot and you can't stand to be over the stove any longer.
Serve with additional soy sauce and Sriracha.

Awesome Product Alert - Sahale Snacks

I picked up a bag of Sahale Snacks Sing Buri cashews today. Flavored with pineapple, lemongrass, soy sauce, sesame seeds and Chinese chili, these cashews (interspersed with peanuts) are mighty tasty. Whenever I try to make spiced nuts, they always lose a lot of their crunch - not so with these! They're salty, spicy, nutty (duh), a little sweet, and a little bit of heat. My kind of snack.




















I can't wait to try some of their other flavors - the Ksar pistachios with pepitas, figs, honey and harissa sound delightful, as do the Soledad almonds with flax seeds, dates, balsamic vinegar and cayenne.

At $4.59 for a 5-oz bag - worth it!

Big A$$ Steak

Look what was waiting for me when I walked in the door:
















Can you believe the size of that thing? I started by cutting off the larger half, and saving it for lunch tomorrow (steak and eggs with slow roasted tomatoes, anyone?). I ate the remaining part, and the dogs got to nibble the bits from the bone. Happy me. Happy dogs. But now I feel a steak-coma coming on, and need a nap.