Some food porn

[pecunium]

I made some chicken cacciatorre, al a mexican.

Juice of three limes, some cumin, a bit of powedered oregeno and some celery seeds, half an onion (chopped small), and some rosemary.

Take a couple of chicken breasts and let them soak in this for two-three hours.

Simmer a couple of cans of diced tomatoes, and about four fresh (chopped small).

Mix the marinade into the tomatoes (a small clove of garlic can be added) and lay the breasts in the mixture; covering the meat.

Place a lid over the whole and let it simmer until the chicken is soft.

I steamed some squash on the side, and made a salad of tomatoes and lemon cucumbers. I dressed it with truffle oil.

Next time I'll probably use less than the entire marinade, since the tomatoes were a little bright as a side dish.

Last night was the Tuesday night supper club (it seems it was moved to Weds. while I was gone).

I felt lazy, so I made chili.


Juiced about four limes, added cumin, cinnamon, oregano, celery seed (all pulversised in the spice grinder; which is a Braun whirling coffee mill). Cubed about 1 1/2 lbs of pork. Marinated that for about four hours.

Took the remainder the previous night's tomatoes, added a large clove of garlic, about two-lbs of fresh tomatoes, three cans of diced, three cans of black beans and an onion as well as two small orange peppers (I don't know what kind they are, but they grew on a tall plant, and are hot. Short, pointed and lots of seeds, which I tossed most of away) which were also pulverised.

Roasted some paprika in bacon grease and added it, with about a tablespoon of fresh.

About an hour and half before I was expecting to serve it, I removed the meat from the marinade and added it.

Served with rice, chips, salsa guacamole and a bottle of "La Boca" Cabernet Sauvignon, 200s, from Mendoza Vinyards in Argentina. It needs another year or so. Very bright, the fruit overstated and metallic. It has promise, but I'm not likely to lay any in (it was brought by one of the guests).

The chili was almost perfect. The black beans gave it an nicely earthy note, the peppers (and the marinade) gave it bite and the rice kept it from being too much.

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Interactive food porn!

I have housemates who tremble at the thought of fish. It's taken no small effort to get them to accept a small can of sardinees in the tuna melts.

I take a bunch of basil (of which I have not enough. My plants are suffering from the wonderful weather {which means cool, foggy, days, and clear nights), and so I have enough on them to make one batch.

I've barely begun pinching them.

So, a bunch of basil.

Garlic, pine nuts (I like them, TJs has them cheap and Maia has an aversion to wrinkled nuts because he mother is allergic (in an annoying, not life threatening, way) to walnuts. and she is afraid she might be too (though she has recently come to doubt this). This is a pity because they have a pair of pecan trees which make wonderful nuts. Maybe I'll collect five-ten gallons and bring them up/ship them to you.

Where was I.

Basil, Garlic, Pine Nuts.

Parmesan.

Olive Oil. This is the heart and soul of the matter. I tried it with truffle oil once. A waste. The basil and the garlic killed the subtlety. Kalamata is good,

If I am short of the moderately acidic stuff, I'll use the pale ones, but it needs help, and a splash of really heavy dipping oils is needed.

Maybe some lemon zest.

Bread, soft cheeses and beer with mixed olives on the side. I find pesto, even on pasta, too aggressive for most wines. Reds are too beefy, and the whites disappear against it.

TK

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

I don't remember why I use romano rather than parmesan. It's been so long since I made the choice that I've forgotten what the logic was, just that there was logic. It might have been because the romano comes from sheep's milk rather than cow's milk, or because I could get better romano than parmesan, or because parmesan is the default grated cheese in the US. I buy my hard cheese already grated these days rather than grating it myself, but coarsely grated, not fine.

I would be very grateful for and appreciative of hand-collected nuts should they at some point show up. This weekend I intend to freeze some pesto starter for the winter, while basil is plentiful and fresh.

Pesto starter: all the basil leaves I can get, put through the food processor with olive oil. Mash into container, add olive oil to cover, close container, freeze. When thawed, drain a bit of the olive oil, then tip starter into food processor and go on with other pesto ingredients. It is very definitely not as good as summer pesto, but it's a decent illusion in the dead of winter.