What's in the pantry?

potatoes and leeks photo by Kristin
To spare you another rant about Seattle's weather, I'll just say that today I wanted to make a comforting soup for dinner out of ingredients that I already had on hand.
It kind of ended up being a trip down memory lane. I had some Yukon gold potatoes and two leeks in the fridge and thought of the baked potato soup I used to make. I think that's one of the first things I made for my friend and when she started calling me "chefetta".
Baked potato soup was something served at one of the first places I ever worked as a server. Back in State College, Pa. What a lifetime ago it seems, almost 15 years!

Baked potato soup photo by Kristin
Baked potato soup:
6 small/med. Yukon potatoes, or 2-3 Russet potatoes. (The Yukons will stay a little more firm, the Russets a little more crumbly)
2 leeks well cleaned and chopped
1-2 slices of bacon (optional)
2 TBS. flour
salt, pepper
1/2 c. cream or half/half
2 1/2 c. water/chicken stock or veggie stock(or broth if that's what you have)
cheddar cheese, chives, sour cream, for garnishing

Bake potatoes in oven or microwave and let cool.(I'm going to assume most of you know how to do this:) When they are cooled, you can leave the skin on and dice them, or scoop out insides and discard skin. Set aside, covered so they don't dry out.
Dice bacon and render in heavy bottomed pan. Remove bacon to paper towel and set aside. Drain any fat excess fat leaving about 2 TBS. in the pot. Add leeks, salt, pepper and flour. Stir occasionally for about 5 min. Add a little of the water/stock and stir, scraping up the good bits from the bottom of the pot. Slowly add the rest of water/stock and cream/half-half. Stir for a minute. Add potatoes and cook until heated through, stirring occasionally and adjusting seasonings if necessary. Serve garnished with reserved bacon, cheddar cheese and any other of your favorite baked potato toppings.

*update* 3/31
I forgot to mention that if you don't want to use bacon, just add about 2TBS olive oil or butter to pot and start where it says to add the leeks etc...(after baking the potatoes and letting them cool)

I had promised photos and details of our dinner party on Friday. What a disaster! Well, in a culinary context I mean. We were to have a good ol' fashioned fondue party except my trusted recipe ended up a fondon't. (Yup, I said that) I tried following that rule of "don't make anything you haven't before for a dinner party" and see what that got me...

Roasted potatoes photo by Kristin
I made these pretty roasted potatoes, sliced veggies, picked up a baguette, and my friend had some pulled roasted chicken. All this for dipping into silky, velvety, stick-to-your-chin-but-you-dont'-care cheese. The cheese just seized! Would not melt smoothly at all. I think the wine may have been to acidic, but I don't really know for sure. It was just a giant blob. We just had a laugh(I tried to anyway!) and sliced up the cheese(it tasted like fondue) and continued with dinner. The chocolate fondue was delicious, but I stayed away from helping with that one...

Strawberries for chocolate fondue photo by Kristin

The stars of the evening still loved me anyway.

The stars, Fiona and Detroit photo by Kristin

Thanks Erica and Casey for a great time!

Blaaah-gging

Seattle sky photo by Kristin
Yay!(read with extreme sarcasam) This is what Seattle looks like again today. This is the time of year when I have to try really hard to get out of bed instead of hanging a sign around my neck that says "wake me when the sun finally shines" I have to make little adjustments here and there, like taking photos of the rain so that i can "appreciate" it.

Pink working lunch photo by Kristin
One of the things I love about our kitchen is that it's on the southwest corner of the building and even when it's really grey outside, we get quite a bit of light. So for the past two days, I've been doing studio work on the kitchen table to take advantage of this.

Pink sunshine-substitute photo by Kristin
I also made a pretty pink strawberry smoothie(yay for spring and strawberries!) to match the colorways I'm using and served it to my self in a piece of stemware for extra specialness.

Everyday-ness photo by Kristin

And, trying to see something in the everyday things helps to stave off the lethargy of five months of the cold and grey.

I'm looking forward to tonight. We are going to friends for a little dinner party. Photos and details to come this weekend....

In a pinch...

google image said this pix came from here.

The bestest, fastest, creamiest and not-so-bad-for-you pasta sauce is an ounce of goat cheese mixed into cooked pasta/veggies with a half cup of pasta cooking water. So good when your expected delivery of food has items that are "unavailable" when you were planning on them to be there for your no-fuss dinner.

Monday

Kind of a lame title of a post, but I'm exercising the principle of "if you don't have anything nice to say..." . That's how I feel about most of today after a "mishap" in the studio. But, enough about that and on to the food portion of the day.

I had intended on making the lentil soup my friend sent me a recipe for, but only could muster up a half assed attempt at it because I kinda forgot to eat today. I managed to saute some onion and carrot and pour some veggie stock over them before dumping in a package of pre-cooked beluga lentils. Maybe not my most whole hearted attempt, but it was still better than canned soup in my book.

Lame-day lentil soup refuse. Photo by Kristin
The day got better after I ran some stairs and went to my friend's house for dinner. She has a goal this week of cooking only with the things she has on hand. We had ravioli with meat sauce and a fabulous spinach salad filled with fruit and nuts. My task was to bring things to round out the salad(fruit and nuts) and some wine. Everything was so simple but so delicious too.

Fabulous red counter! Photo by Kristin
That's her kitchen counter above. I loooove the red laminate!

Girl's night 1 photo by Krisitn
And two photos of our girls night date dinner. We liked both pictures so why not show them both? ( She teaches music to elementary school kids and the flowers are from one of her students. So cute!)

Girl's night 2 photo by Kristin
She asked me for suggestions on what to make the rest of the week with what she had in her kitchen and we came up with a possible weekly feature--"What's in Sarah's Pantry?" It makes sense since the last post was about and item in J's pantry. Let me ponder a bit on that, but I'll probably give it a go! This is not a new idea--I've heard it on The Splendid Table on the radio where people call in with random things they have and the host has to think of something on the spot. I guess this can be my version of that. Send me a list of things you need to use and I'll see what I can come up with!

ps thanks again for dinner pretty lady!

Tech talk

If you've tried to leave a comment here and haven't been able to, I apologize. I've been trying to figure out how to fix that. It seems to work for my mom if she picks her "profile" as anonymous. If that works for you, please leave your name somewhere in the comment if you'd like me to know it's you! This may not work for everyone, (I haven't been able to comment on another friends blog no matter what I try) so I will continue to investigate.
Thanks!

By request

A friend has requested some ideas for the box of couscous she has in her pantry. I usually have a box too, for a really quick starch. I think it's something I use more in the summer to make tabouleh* and other quick salad-y dishes. But if Eugene in anything like it is here in Seattle(still kinda cold with more rain for tomorrow), then she may be craving something warm and comforting.

photo by Krisitn
To start, making the couscous is pretty much how they say on the box. Instead of water, I use broth or stock, whichever I have handy or in the fridge and a healthy dousing of olive oil--maybe a tablespoon or so. Bring them just to a boil and stir the couscous in, cover and remove from the heat. Five minutes later it's done. One cup of uncooked couscous goes a long way, so sometimes I just make half. Also, with broth/stock you probably won't need any salt. If you're using water, add a pinch of salt.

Here are some things to put on top:
Moroccan inspired:
Saute an onion in olive oil with salt, pepper, a couple of dashes of cinnamon, cayenne(just a little if you don't like too much spice),zest of a lemon and some thyme. Cook them for about 5-7 minutes then add a can of tomatoes(diced,pureed or whole ones that have been broken up) a can of drained chickpeas, and a hand full of golden raisins. Some cooked, cubed chicken would be great too, if you have any and/or want to. Cook until heated through, check for seasoning and serve over couscous garnished with chopped flat leaf parsley and/or mint and sliced almonds if you have them.

The roasted vegetable stand-by:
Roast your favorite chopped veggies that have been tossed in olive oil, squeeze of tomato paste, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes and grated garlic on parchment lined sheet in 400 oven for about 20-30 mins. Serve over couscous topped with parmesan cheese, or feta, maybe with a drizzle of pesto.

The clean-your fridge:
Things like that jarred bruschetta topping from Trader Joe's we had last week can be mixed in the couscous w/ a can of white beans or chickpeas and some cheese to top off. For when you have a little left in the jar, it's a good fast lunch. I haven't been to T.J's in a while, but good ones to try are caponata(has chunks of eggplant), sundried tomato spread, olive tapanade...I found these can sometimes be a little salty, so mix a little in and taste to see if you need to add more.

*Tabouleh:
Tabouleh is traditionally made with cracked wheat berries, but whole wheat couscous is faster. This one involves a lot of chopping, but I love it. Finely chop one bunch flat leaf parsley and one bunch of mint. Mix these into cooled, cooked couscous with chopped red onion, chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper and lots of olive oil and lemon juice. I sometimes add chopped cucumber too. I try to let it sit in the fridge for a little while so all the flavors have a chance to get good and yummy. This is great alone or topped with chicken or shrimp or served with hummus and carrot sticks. And of course, garnished with feta cheese.

As a stuffer:
Use cooked couscous in recipes for stuffed veggies. For the upcoming tomato season, find a nice big tomato and cut off the top. Scoop the middle out and reserve if there's a lot of flesh. If it's mostly seeds, I don't use it. Chop the reserved tomato and mix with couscous, drained canned tuna, chopped fresh basil or flat leaf parsley, salt and pepper, olive oil and lemon juice and capers(optional). Fill the cavity of the tomato with this mixture and it's ready to eat!

Ok J, hopefully these will spark something for you. They aren't really in recipe format as I was typing it out as I was thinking of them. If there are any you'd like in a more standard format, let me know and I can send them to you.

First day of spring

For dinner on this first night of spring, I decided to make something simple, using things I had on hand. I mainly needed to figure out how to use the beautiful baguette I received on Wed.

spring peas photo by Kristin

I also had some thawed chicken and crunchy fresh veggies in the fridge.

spring chicken salad sammie photo by Kristin
These became the ingredients for an easy chicken salad sandwich. I poached the chicken with lemon and thyme, shred it, and mixed it with radish, raw spring peas and a little mayo.
The baguette was crusty and chewy and the peas popped in your mouth with the freshest burst of flavor. Poaching the chicken kept it nice and moist and the radish provided a little zing.
Very simple and satisfying.
Since the weather was very un-spring like, I whipped up two individual sized pear crisps and topped them with vanilla ice cream. Comfort food for the cold rain...

pear crisp a la mode photo by Kristin

And J, to answer your comment from the previous post:
Farro is a grain that closely resembles barley in flavor and texture. I think it's the oldest known grain, but now is used more in Italy and Asia. It's chewy and nutty and delicious! Maybe they have it at the Kiva?

Today...(for Erica*)

This is how i started my day: home-cooked steel cut oats with strawberries and cream. The perfect warm-comfort-it's-still-cold-yet-almost-spring breakfast.(And good for you!)

These kumquat beauties were delivered* *yesterday and will be a component of tonight's dinner.

Dinner prep: farro soaking, sliced red onion, yellow cauliflower, endive, and kumquats.

Finished product=sauteed endive,onion,cauliflower,kumquats and orange over farro with shredded crispy duck confit. My hubby described it as "a delicious combination of textures and flavors: chewy,crunchy,tart,savory,sweet and gooood!" Yes, he really does describe food like this. I'm so lucky!

*my friend Erica recently tried a recipe from a past post. She owns the shop Hitchcock in Madrona (Seattle). At least three quatrters of my fabulous "statement" jewelry is from here. Two of which are designed by Erica herself. Stop by next Thursday for a trunk show by one of my fave designers, Regina Chang!

**for a future post. one of my inspirations and providers: Spud.

See below please!

Hmmmm. A feature of Blogger that I was unaware of. I saved a draft of a post on Tues. because I was testing how the photos would look. Now that I've finished and posted the content, it is showing up as posted on Tues. So that means you'll hafta scroll down past the most recent posts to read it. I'm not sure how to adjust that, so if you don't mind, please scroll down to "Chef of the Day" Thanks!

Weekend summary

Yes, it's been over a week since my last post. My explanation(not excuse) is I was out of town for a long weekend, am working on a big post which includes color correcting photos(which I haven't done before) and a computer whose molecules spontaneously arrange themselves into non-working order. So, to tide you over, I have a few food related photos from my trip.

I went to Eugene, Or. to visit one of my best friends. She had an art opening/cupcake party which we made/decorated the cupcakes for. Well, she made the cupcakes and I helped decorate.

cupcakes in the making (photo by Kristin)
My friend also has an amazing studio space. I worked on a project that is part of a new body of work. I used vegetables as stamps for some large scale work. The final results are still a little ways out, but here's a peek at the process.

veggie stamps (photo by Kristin)
And here are some of the finished cupcakes. They were a big hit!

art opening cupcakes (photo by Kristin)

More posts this week-I promise!

Chef of the Day

I recently had the honor/opportunity to be a guest at a lunch at Seattle Central Community College's culinary program. For the final project of each graduating student, they are the "Chef of the Day". This entails planning and executing a multi-course lunch for a group of twelve. My friend's roommate had his day last Thursday.
Dylan Carson themed his lunch "Liquid Gold" for the olive oil that was a component of each of the five courses. In addition to the five courses, Dylan started out the meal with olive oil from the Spanish Table (probably one of my most favoritest places ever.) with the fresh bread made daily as part of the culinary program.

Olive oil to set the tone for the meal. Photo by Kristin


First course. Photo by Kristin
For the first course, Dylan presented an amuse bouche of sea urchin panacotta, Dungeness crab, avocado, lime-olive oil. I never had sea urchin before and it played nicely with a pungent saltiness against the creamy avocado and sweet crab. The lime-olive oil provided a nice acidity and extra richness.

Perfectly cooked striped bass. Photo by Kristin
The second course consisted of Meyer lemon-olive oil poached striped bass, shaved fennel salad,toasted pine nuts, Belgian endive and orange gelee. This is the course where everyone started saying "mmmmmmm" and "oh, this is cooked perfectly!" The tender, succulent bass contrasted wonderfully with the tart and sweet gelee, crisp fennel and crunchy pine nuts.

Sop-it-up-with-bread-good soup. Photo by Kristin
The middle and third course was a soup described as "Creamy parsnip and pear puree,crispy pancetta,olive tapenade,pear chip and roasted red pepper-olive oil." I would describe it as "Dear Universe, Could I please have this for lunch everyday during the winter? Thanks and kisses..." I think everyone else agreed by grabbing most of the sliced bread to soak up every last delicious drop.

The fourth course. Photo by Kristin
For the "main" or fourth course, Dylan prepared Rack of wild boar loin, wild boar demi-glace, mushroom and sage farro, asparagus and olive oil sabayon. To start with, I would have been quite content with just the mushroom and sage farro for my lunch. The flavor was outstanding. Paired with the creamy sabayon, rich demi-glace and tender wild boar, it went past "lunch" and into "dinner". I savored every bite, but have to say I left a little of the boar. Only because I knew the next course included an olive oil cake and that, that I had to leave room for.

Savory and sweet dessert. Photo by Kristin (eek! bad lighting!)
For dessert, the fifth and final course, we had olive oil cake, olive oil and cognac gelato, poached dried fruit compote. Out of everything on the menu, this was the course I was most excited for, and I was not disappointed. I am intrigued by desserts that include savory elements. I am a person that would much rather have cheese than the "death- by -chocolate -sugar-bomb". That's not to say I don't love chocolate. Just a square of high-quality dark please. Anyway, Dylan made not only an olive oil cake, (a fave of mine as far as cakes go) but an olive oil gelato. This is something I've toyed with making but haven't for fear that I would be the only one who would like it and be stuck with a whole batch of it.(Which, that could be ok if I didn't like my current wardrobe so much!) Both the cake and gelato were fabulous. The cake was very moist, thanks, I'm sure, to it's main flavor component being olive oil(!) and it 's perfect accompaniment the poached fruit. The gelato I saved to have as it's own. It was creamy and a little grassy/peppery, with the true character of olive oil coming through. It was served garnished with a tuille that I wished were a little lemony. Then it would have been perfect!

I would say that overall, Dylan's lunch was cohesive and well thought out. After each course, everyone's plate was almost licked clean and that is always a good sign. Especially given that about three quarters of the guests are in the industry and they can be a hard group to please.

I'd like to thank Dylan for including me. Great job!

And for anyone in or visiting Seattle in search of a great lunch and the best deal possible, stop by Seattle Central on Broadway. Three courses of restaurant quality plates at about 15 bucks. They strive to include local, sustainable products to boot. The decor/atmoshpere is a little lacking, but I understand that the whole program will be undergoing a renovation soon. But seriously, the food can be so good as to make up for it. I think each week is themed--French, Mexican(two that I personally experienced)Thanksgiving, etc...

Hurry up Spring!

The weather here in Seattle has been completely bizarre the last few days. We have had snow,hail,rain,thunder and lightning and blinding sun just today! It was freezing cold too, well by Seattle standards anyway and I spent the day ignoring the part of myself that wanted to burrow into the bed and never come out. I am impatient for spring to arrive, especially for all the food goodies that come with it(fava beans!)
This year, we've been trying to eat seasonally and locally. For the winter, that means a lot of kale, brussel sprouts, apples and pears. I'm ready for some new flavors, but it's not quite time yet for peas and asparagus.
All of this was on my mind tonight when I was trying to decide what to make for dinner while we were out walking the dog. I had Plan A which was decidedly more cozy and winter weather fare, but didn't sound appealing to my husband, so I came up with Plan B. Searching through everything in my "pantry"(the bookshelf in our kitchen), I came across a tin of trout fillets that I had picked up at Trader Joe's. And then I think it went something like this in my mind:
Trout. Trout and almonds are good together, almonds and green beans are good together~ooh, I have a few green beans in the fridge! Oh, and this big lemon. Lemon goes well with both trout and green beans! Hmm, there maybe not enough green beans. But look at this half head of broccoli right next to the green beans. Ok, now to tie this all together...hi half box of spaghetti...lemony and green is close enough to spring...

photo by Kristin

Here's how it played out:
1/2 an onion, chopped broccoli and green beans, lemon zest, salt and pepper and olive oil all went in a pan to saute for a few minutes. I prefer my veggies pretty crispy, but you could blanch them for a few seconds first. Just before the pasta finished cooking, I added a pat of butter to the veggies and the juice of the lemon and about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. I tossed the cooked pasta in the veggie pan to let it soak up all the lemony goodness and finished it with the trout, sliced almonds and parsley.
The crisp green vegetables, the crunchy almonds, and the sunny brightness of the lemon worked pretty well with the delicate flakiness of the trout and made it feel as if it were almost spring. Almost.

P1010410
Originally uploaded by kdeluga

After a busy week and some technical difficulties with my computer, there wasn't much time for cooking. I have a few ideas for posts this week, so stay tuned!

Surprise lunch

My lunch today was quite surprising for many reasons. To start, I had the foresight last night to roast some veggies. I had a certain amount of things that I wanted to get done today before I had to leave for an appointment and none of them were making lunch. My thoughts were "roast veggies with curry to top with the baked curry tofu in the fridge"

photo by Kristin
I chopped both purple and white cauliflower, carrots and green beans and tossed them in about 1/4 c. olive oil and about 1 1/2 Tbs. garam masala and 1 tsp-ish salt. 20 minutes on a parchment lined sheet in a 400 oven was the longest step in this lunch, so it wouldn't be so bad to make the same day either. The baked curry tofu was a store bought item, for such an occasion. ( I'm not vegetarian, but I do like tofu.) Anyway, to assemble the rest of the dish took 5 minutes when I popped over from the studio this afternoon. I cubed the tofu and tossed it with the veggies, which were room temp. What I hadn't planned ahead for was the dressing to pull it all together. Initially I was thinking a little olive oil and lemon, but then I saw the yogurt in the fridge when I was grabbing the tofu. I simply mixed yogurt, salt, pepper and enough fresh lemon juice to thin the yogurt to a dressing consistency. Depending on the yogurt, you may only need a squeeze of lemon for flavoring. I only use the real deal, full fat European style yogurt and it takes about 1 small lemon to thin it out enough. If you prefer low or non-fat yogurt, I know it will be just as good.
The surprise of this whole endeavor was the unexpected full flavor. Tangy, toothsome, earthy, spicy and slightly sweet. Indian/style cuisine is not something that comes intuitively to me and whenever I attempt it it's usually just ok. Not terrible, but not that exciting either. So it was an even more satisfying lunch to have something so tasty. I will definitely be making this one again!

*As I was re-reading this just before publishing, I realized that I'm not entirely sure of my terminology. Curry? Is garam masala a curry or a component of? If you know, please leave a comment. I will put it on my list of things to investigate...

Welcome...

...to the first post on Chefetta!
First, a little about the name. My dear friend always says "you're quite the chefetta" while enjoying something I've made for her. It seemed like a fitting name for a blog about me and food.
Here I will write about things I make, eat, drink and often photograph(like the photo in the banner.) I should say that I am not professionally trained, but I have been playing around and figuring things out on my own for about five or six years now. Working in the front of the house for restaurants, most recently at a bistro, has given me a lot of exposure to how things are done and a few people who took the time to show me how and answer my endless questions. I should also say that i don't typically follow recipes. While I read a lot of them here and there, I rarely have one out to refer to when I'm cooking. That leaves a lot of room for me to play and work intuitively. So far, I haven't had very many disasters. I will go on record now to say that any recipe I might include is the best guess approximation of measurements and memory of execution of something I've already made. The process is a lot like working in my studio(my day job) painting and often provides the instant gratification that is sometimes lacking from the paintings, especially when I'm working on something large scale. In the next few posts to come, I'll try to include a little more about how I became interested in food etc.
Now, on to the food!

I was on the phone with a friend today while packing a little lunch to take with me on my day's adventure when she said something along the lines of making my lunch my first post. I told her that it was kinda boring, just some tomato soup made from a leftover pasta sauce and a cheese quesadilla. For me, it was something fast to grab while using up what I had in the fridge. She thought it could be interesting. So to spare myself the stress of what will my first post be???? I'm gonna roll with it.


photo by Kristin
Let's get the quesadilla out of the way. Corn tortillas. Cheddar cheese. Heat until cheese has melted. Not much more to say than that.

Soup that used to be pasta sauce:
I recently made a pasta sauce consisting of canned San Marzano* tomatoes, shredded carrots, onion, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, all pureed together. Garnished with flat leaf parsley and grated pecorino cheese, the end result was simple, sweet and good. The carrots added an extra layer of sweetness that almost made us believe that we were in the middle of tomato season.(read sunny and warm!)
The next night I wasn't feeling too well and wanted something super easy to make for dinner. Into a pot went the pasta sauce, a little water to make it, well, soupy and some spices to take it from Italy to Mexico--cayanne and cumin. Paired with the same simple quesadillas from lunch today, it was easy peasy and really hit the spot. What was left was the perfect lunch to grab and go today.

Whew! I made it through my first post. I was kinda nervous!

*a note about San Marzano tomatoes. They are a variety of plum tomato that has a little bit thinner skin and not as many seeds. They are named for a town near Naples, Italy(not sure why on that). I love their flavor and lack of seeds. The seeds can be a little bitter sometimes.