Black Pasta

I finally made the black pasta dish from the 400 Appetizers book, and I have to say, this one doesn't disappoint.

First off, I had to order the black pasta, also known as sepia pasta, or squid (or cuttlefish) ink pasta, from the internet, because apparently, it's not a popular item in Glasgow.  I don't know why, this stuff is awesome.  It doesn't taste much different from regular pasta, but it's black, so I'd say it's about twice as cool.  Dry, it looks like this:

I had to order a bunch because they wouldn't send it to me unless I ordered more than £5 worth of stuff, and each package was only £3.50.  As a side note, that's the recipe book open to the recipe on the bottom left of the picture.  I will never make a dish that looks like their pictures.

This recipe is pretty easy: cook the pasta, toss with olive oil and a small, chopped and seeded pepper, and top with ricotta cheese.  They suggest black pasta, but really, this will work with any color pasta you've got.  There's even a side-note in the book suggesting green, red, magenta, or golden brown pasta.

When I finished, it looked like this:

Unfortunately for me, I overcooked the pasta a bit, so my nice long, shine strands broke up into little mushy strands that lost a lot of their luster, but the end result was still surprisingly tasty.  The little bit of red pepper really added a lot to the natural flavor of the pasta.  I was initially unimpressed with ricotta cheese in general, but in this dish, it's perfect.  The whole thing came off really well.  You can see that I garnished this with a couple fresh basil leaves.  This is suggested by the recipe book, but I don't think it's necessary at all.

When I was done, it looked like this:

Now this doesn't mean much, since my plates look like this even when I'm eating something that's not very good. In those cases, I don't post pictures of my empty plate.  The fact that there's a picture of an empty plate is my signal to you that it this was a good dish.

Hot Wings

Super Bowl Sunday in the UK.  You know what they don't have here?  Everything good, but more specifically: Buffalo wings.  Sure, you can call up Pizza Hut or some crap shack like that and get some "Spicy BBQ Wings," but I'm not that stupid.

So, in the spirit of the season, I made my own.  That is to say, I made some chicken wings and dowsed them with a bottle of Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce.  Turns out wings are ridiculously easy to make, and as ridiculously delicious. 

First: buy some chicken wings.  These are cheaper than dirt.  I bought two kilograms for about two pounds.  That turns out to be about 20 wings, and when chopped up into drummettes and flats, yields about 40 tasty pieces.  In real numbers, I got 38 pieces, and after eating three before making them hot, I was able to serve 35 at the Super Bowl party.  To cut them up, just take a great big butcher's knife and cut off the tip, then hack your way through the joint between the drummette and the flat.  I washed and dried mine after this, but it's not really necessary, and then I sprinkled them with salt and pepper while I waited for the oil to heat up.

Second: Fry that shit up.  I used my heavy cast-iron skillet and about a whole bottle of vegetable oil.  Make sure the oil is really hot, just at the smoke point, and cook a few pieces at a time.  I did eight at a time.

Third: Restrain yourself.  When they come out of the oil, set them on some paper towels to drain, and then don't eat them.  Or do, they taste great at this point.  Clearly, I had to check a few for doneness.  Even the larger pieces were cooked through by the time their skins had reached an enticing brown.  I don't know how long that was, because I wasn't timing anything.  Just cook them until they look good.

At this point, I put them all in a container to wait for the party.  Sure, they cooled down some and lost their crispyness, but I'm okay with that, because they were going to be reheated and soaked through with sauce soon enough anyway.

At the party, but before the game started, I melted about a quarter-cup of butter and a bottle of Frank's in a wok.  Once it was simmering, I just added in the wings.

The picture above and the one below were taken with my phone, since I forgot to bring my camera to the party, but I think that the deliciousness comes through even with only 2 MP. 

When they were warmed, I put them in a nice glass bowl, generously donated to the cause by the owner of the kitchen, my friend Fraser (not pictured).

And that is the story of how I made some amazing Buffalo wings for the Super Bowl.  You can rest assured that I will be making these again.  I will be trying other sauces as well.  This is now an official part of my cooking repertoire.

Corned Beef

So I finally did some cooking today.  Sorry, it wasn't the black pasta; it seems you can't get that stuff in Glasgow.  I just put an order in from Melbury & Appleton, so it should be here within a week.  That stuff is not cheap, let me tell you. 

Anyway, I did make some corned beef and roasted sweet potatoes.  First, I had to make my own corned beef brisket.  It seems you can't buy corned beef brisket here in Scotland, so I bought just a regular old brisket and soaked it for a week in a brine made from salt, pepper, pickling spices, bay leaves, and water.  Then, inspired by this recipe, I smothered it in wholegrain mustard and brown sugar and popped that baby in the oven.  I thought it would go well with some roasted sweet potatoes, so I looked up how to do it.  I found this recipe and really just used it to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong.  My sweet potatoes were cut into fourths, drizzled with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and baked in a separate pan in the oven with the brisket.  Since I was using a pretty small brisket, it only took about one hour and forty minutes before everything was done, and then I combined the potatoes and brisket into one bowl and put them under the broiler for about five more minutes to make it all a bit more crispy.

Here are the results:

I know, it looks a bit meager, but I'm using a small brisket, only four sweet potatoes, and a really big dish here.  It also looks pretty tasty.  That stuff on top of the meat is the baked on goodness of the mustard and brown sugar.  I had a bit of it for a late dinner (it was already 2am!), and damn, this is some good shit.

I mean, look at that.  Amazing!  The potatoes were perfect, and the beef was all kinds of flavorful, and in a good way, too.  And the thing with corned beef is that it's always better the next day, so I can't wait for tomorrow.

Next recipe from the internet: Strawberry Dumplings! 

Sorry, No New Cooking Yet

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted.  Don't worry, I haven't forgotten, I've just been distracted lately.  I didn't cook anything today, but I did just sew a new scarf.

I got the original idea from here, but the pockets there are pretty crappy.  Plus, I don't need any of that extra crap, and I wanted a longer and wider scarf.  So really, I didn't follow those instructions at all.  I will say that this is my third attempt.  The first one was much more like in the link, and I've just been improving on it ever since. 

This one's got double welt pockets, one on each end. 

Although, they are a bit too shallow:

That's actually only about four inches deep.  I guess I'll have to try again sometime.  Maybe then I'll finally get it right.  Still, I'm pretty happy with this one.

I like this project because it only takes a couple hours to make, and probably a lot less time if you practice sewing regularly.  I'm going to have to start making things other than scarves one of theses days.  Also, if anybody cares, here are some nice instructions on making a simple welt pocket.  It's helped me twice now. 


On the cooking front, I'm hoping to make the corned beef this weekend, it's currently in brining in the refrigerator, and I'm still looking for some black pasta somewhere in Glasgow.  If I can get that, I can move on in the book.  I'm also looking to make some hot wings for the super bowl, so we'll see how that turns out.

Ups and Downs

I didn't do much today, but what I did do was cooking, so you're about to see the fruits of pretty much all of my constructive motion today.  Despite my original plans of cooking and cleaning today, my house is not much cleaner than it was when I started, but I am now full for the second time today.

First, breakfast:
I've been waiting to try out the recipe in "400 Appetizers & Party Recipes" for chocolate and orange scotch pancakes since I picked it out more than a week ago.  I mean, the picture in the book just looks so good.  The recipe is pretty easy, it's basically a modified chocolate pancake soaked in a creme fraiche sauce and flavored with chocolate and orange, with a bit of Gran Marnier thrown in for good measure. 

The pancakes were pretty great by themselves, so I'll throw in the recipe here:

In a large bowl, sift together 1 cup self-rising flour (I used a substitution from "The Joy of Cooking" of 1 cup plain flour, 1.5 tsp baking soda, and 0.5 tsp salt) and 2 tbsp cocoa powder.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and crack in two eggs.  Slowly incorporate the eggs into the dry ingredients with a whisk (This is actually pretty hard.  I think I did it wrong because I just got a bunch of lumps of dough-like substance, while the book seems to indicate that it should be smooth).  In a small pan, heat together 7/8 cup milk and 2 oz semisweet chocolate (I used 72% cocoa dark chocolate) until the chocolate is dissolved.  Mix the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and add the finely grated rind of one orange and 2 tbsp orange juice.  Drop large spoonfulls of the batter onto a pan and cook them like any other pancake. 

I had a couple of these little pancakes while I was making them, and believe me, they are delicious.  The thing is, they're not really sweet like pancakes, more like a kind of savory chocolate.  I don't know if this is because of the salt in my self-rising flour substitution or what, but I loved these guys on their own, and I hope to make them again.  Unfortunately, the rest of the recipe just goes down hill.

Actually, if you just make the start of the cream recipe--dissolving some brown sugar in warm butter, and mixing with creme fraiche--you'd have a pretty good sauce, but I found that the added Gran Marnier, orange slices, chocolate, and orange peel just brought it down.  I think it was too much.  I also think that I don't like Gran Marnier.  When it was done, the whole thing looked like this:

Not too impressive.  If I do this again, I'm going to just make the simple sauce and drizzle it over the pancakes, but in this recipe, I was instructed to basically stir the pancakes into the sauce.  This resulted in the horrible mess you see above.  It didn't help that my orange peel is short and has too much pith, and I could only make chocolate shavings instead of chocolate curls for decoration.  I'm sure a more professional cook could do a better job, but I think even a more professional cook would agree with me when I say this dish would taste better if we just kept it simple.

I was so full from the pancakes that I had no need for lunch, so we'll just fast-forward through my squandered afternoon (although I did call Jingnan, that was nice), and get to the flour tortillas.

Dinner:

I linked to this in a previous post, but I'll do it again here because it's such a good recipe.  Since it's just a simple flatbread, both the ingredients and the instructions are basic: mix together flour, salt, baking powder, milk, and lard; roll into circles and cook. 

I just followed the recipe, and I didn't have any problems to speak of.  Well, except I learned the hard way that you shouldn't stack the tortillas once you've rolled them, if they sit too long, they'll start to stick together and it's a pain to separate them.

I really liked working with this dough though.  The milk and lard lead to this being a really soft and light dough that just rolls out like magic.  Some people might be scared to try the recipe just because they've had bad experiences rolling out pie crusts or something, but this is nothing like pie crusts.  Well, it might be like rolling out pie crusts in heaven, because this dough is light and fluffy. 

They're pretty quick and easy to cook, so I'll just skip to what they look like when they're finished:

Well, now I've got a stack of fresh flour tortillas, what do I do with them?  I make tacos (fajitas?)! Well, I'm sure it's closer to tex-mex than anything else, but it is delicious.

As you can see, I've got my tortillas, some refried beans (hard to get around here, but I stopped at Lupe Pinto's last weekend), cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and two meaty fillings.  I've got some regular ground beef with loads of cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper, and some beef bouillon to fill it out, and I've got some pork steak cubed and fried up with onions and yellow bell pepper.  It's a hefty spread, and now that I've eaten a couple portions, I can tell you that it is a filling as it is tasty. 

Upcoming recipes to look forward to:  Elvis's favorite banana pudding recipe, baked corned beef encrusted in dijion mustard and brown sugar, and from the recipe book, recipe #149, Black Pasta with Ricotta (if I can find any black pasta around here).

Adventure!

I've been feeling like I haven't made anything for a while, and while that's not entirely true (I made some soup this week), I certainly haven't posted about anything in a while.  So today, I made a recipe I got from my good friend Mary.  It's called Cauliflower Soup, and I present the recipe below:

1 small head of cauliflower, diced
1 box of chicken stock
1/2 jar of fire roasted red pepper, diced
1 can of regular evaporated milk
1 small box of mushrooms
1 can of cheddar cheese soup
1 T. onion soup mix
2 T butter
1 cup cooked wild rice

Cook cauliflower in the chicken stock.  Sauté the mushrooms in the butter.  Add the mushrooms and everything else to the cauliflower and serve.

To serve, top with some shredded cheddar cheese, about 1/2 to 2 T of rice vinegar and top with ginger garlic wonton salad topper. 

Okay, so that was the recipe, but I couldn't make it according to the recipe.  I didn't have a box of chicken stock, but I have bouillon, and I guessed that a 'box' is about a pint.  I didn't have any fire roasted red pepper, but I did have a whole red bell pepper which I didn't roast, but I did chop it up and cook it with the cauliflower.  I didn't have a small box of mushrooms, but I did have a box of small mushrooms.  There's no cheddar cheese soup in this country, so I made a packet of cheddar cheese sauce and added a little more milk than was called for on the packet instructions.  I didn't have onion soup mix, but I found some onion sauce mix.  I had wild rice, but that stuff is a pain to cook.  Did you know that it takes like 50 minutes to cook wild rice?  It's all right though, it tastes pretty good.

Oh, also, I didn't have any cheddar cheese or ginger garlic wonton salad topper (whatever that is), so I skipped the cheese and used some tortilla chips in place of the salad topper.

So, in spite of all my substitutions, everything worked out.  Here's what it looks like in the bowl:

It's not exactly a color explosion, but a lot of that has to do with the wild rice and red pepper sitting at the bottom of the bowl.  What it lacks in visual appeal, it more than makes up with flavor.  And don't skip the vinegar at the end; it really adds something special. 

Actually, before I made the soup (because cooking wild rice takes soooooo looooonnnggg), I made what must be my favorite salad.

 
I guess it's sort of a Caprese salad.  It's just chopped bell peppers, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese topped with some olive oil and a little salt and pepper.  The secret is to mix everything together and then wait at least ten minutes for the juices to come out.  Then it tastes amazing.  Plus, it's super easy and probably good for you.  Thanks Jingnan for exposing me to this tasty salad.  

Amaretto Soufflé

First, I need to warn you: I've never made a soufflé before.  I've never even been in the same room as a soufflé before, so I don't know what one's supposed to taste like, or how it should feel.  That being said, I made one today.

This particular soufflé is from the "400 Appetizers & Party Recipes" book, and it's on page 490.  It sounds pretty good because I love amaretto and all things almonds.  It calls for some amaretti, which I'd never heard of before, but it turns out they're these delicious Italian cookies.  If I get nothing else out of this recipe, the discovery of the amaretti makes it all worth it.

 

All right, so a soufflé is basically a lot of air and egg with a little bit of flavoring.  You put it in a special soufflé dish (which I had a hell of a time finding in Glasgow), and when it bakes, it expands.  You're supposed to serve it right away because it deflates quickly.  From all that I've read, a soufflé is only really pretty when it first comes out of the oven.  Even the act of serving it makes it deflate, and it's still gooey inside, so it all falls apart when you serve it up.  I really don't understand this dish at all.

Well, I baked it.  I might have baked it too long, because when it came out it looked like this:

As you can see, it's a little too brown on top, and it's already started to deflate.  In this picture, I'd already sprinkled a little powdered sugar on top.  Barring that, this is how it looked when it came out of the oven. 

Once you cut it open to serve it, it deflates a lot more.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the hight in the center is about half the height of the dish.  The inside is a bit runny and very much like you'd expect from half-baked egg whites. 

How does it taste?  Honestly, it tastes like eggs.  Eggs with a little too much sugar and not enough amaretto.  Expecting, according to the book's description, "A mouthwatering and luxurious soufflé with rather more than a hint of Amaretto liqueur," I was not impressed.  But let me point you back to my initial statement: I have never made or even seen a soufflé before tonight.  Maybe I just did it wrong.  I followed the recipe to the letter, but it's possible I just have no intuition for soufflés, and I messed up some important detail.  Oh well, this book has loads of soufflés in it, so I'm sure I'll be making more in the future.  I just hope they aren't all this disappointing. 

Next recipe form the book:  #332, Chocolate and Orange Scotch Pancakes.  Now this is more my style.  I'll get working on them ASAP.