Curried Lentils

07/31/2009, originally uploaded by MelanitaC.

In the words of Gordon Ramsay: Curried lentils with potatoes and whole wheat flat bread… Done!

New Hangout

07/31/2009, originally uploaded by MelanitaC.

So Noumi has started to hangout on the top of the recliner, but only when Melanie (who is leaning out of the way) is sitting in it. What a weird cat.

New Coffee Mug

07/30/2009, originally uploaded by MelanitaC.

As a present by many parents at the end of the school year, I was given several gift certificates to Starbucks. While I like their coffee, I’d much rather prepare a cup from the comfort of my own home. I did, however, pick up a new coffee mug.

Davis Square Farmers’ Market

Yesterday, I went to the Davis Square farmers’ market (we usually go to the one at Union Square on Saturdays), but I forgot to take a picture. While quite a bit smaller than the market at Union, I picked up some wonderful raspberries, cherries, goat cheese, and onions.

The “Anti-Ramen”

07/27/2009, originally uploaded by MelanitaC.

Mark Bittman refers to this dish as the “anti-ramen”. Since the asian market is right next to the farmers’ market, I stopped off to get some fresh egg noodles. The broth created for the soup is made from water, soy sauce, ketchup, rice wine vinegar, and tofu (optional). I garnished mine with some scallions and sriracha.

Taste of Montreal

07/26/2009, originally uploaded by MelanitaC.

Melanie made some spaghetti and smoked meat. Neither one of us, however, could finish what we prepared, so I’ve got a few lunches already made for this week.

Chocolate Chip – Banana Cupcakes

I was in a baking mood today so I made some cupcakes from the Williams-Sonoma Baking cookbook. Here’s the recipe and final product:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups mashed (very ripe) bananas
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 3 tbsp buttermilk
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

I didn’t have many semisweet chocolate chips left so I ended up using bittersweet chocolate chips. They turned out good anyway!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with paper liners.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, melted butter, egg, and buttermilk until well blended. Add the flour mixture and whisk just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon an equal amount of the batter into each prepared muffin cup.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Immediately  invert onto a wire rack. Turn the cupcakes top side up and let cool completely.

The recipe calls for buttercream frosting for the cupcakes but I had them plain and they turned out amazing.

Cherry Pie

I have never prepared a pie by myself. I normally buy the crust already made and then make the pie. So I decided it was about time that I start making my own pie crust. I called my mother to get her recipe and I checked in a couple cookbooks for other crust recipes and I decided to try the Williams-Sonoma Baking cookbook recipe first. I figure that I already know what my mother’s recipe tastes like so this way I can try another one and decide if my mom’s is better.

Now, I realize that I’m not a professional… so there should be no laughing at how ugly my pie turned out! I’ll be having it for dessert tonight since Patrick won’t let me have any before then. I’ll post later how it tastes.

For the inside of the pie, I decided to kind of use a Mark Bittman recipe. Actually, I used his idea but changed it a bit because I wanted to keep the juices in the pie. I pitted a bunch of cherries (and dyed my fingers purple while doing it!) and then covered them with 1/2 cup of sugar. I let them macerate for a bit and then added some whole wheat flour into the mixture to soak up all the juice. I then poured the mixture into the pie crust and baked it for 50 minutes at 400 degrees.

Macerating cherries

The Basic Pie Pastry recipe:

Follow three rules to avoid a tough crust: Don’t overblend; add enough water so the dough is rolled out easily; and handle it no more than necessary.

For a 9-inch crust:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3-4 tablespoons cold water, more or less, as needed

For a 9-inch double-crust:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 6-7 tablespoons cold water

Hand method: In a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add the shortening. With two knives or a pastry blender, blend the ingredients together, working quickly, until you have a mixture of tiny, irregular flakes about the size of coarse bread crumbs.

Sprinkle in the water 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring gently with a fork after each addition. Add just enough water for the dough to form a rough mass.

With floured hands, pat the dough into a smooth disk – for a double-crust pie, make 2 disks, one slightly larger than the other. The dough is now ready to use. There is no need to chill the dough, although it may be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Rolling out the dough: On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out (using the larger piece if it is the bottom of a double-crust pie) until it is about 1/8 inch thick an 12 inches in diameter or 2 inches larger than the top of the pan. Keep the dough as round as possible.

Transfer the rolled-out pastry to the pie pan. Pat the pastry in around the edges to fit the pan’s shape. If you are making a single crust pie, the pie shell may now be filled unbaked, partially baked, or fully baked, depending on the recipe. if you are making a double-crust pie, foll out the remaining pastry for the top crust and set it aside on waxed paper.

Prepared cherry pie

Final product - Cherry Pie!

Twitter

So Twitter is the next big thing in social networking.  Now I am not one who fawns all over digital, social network stuff; however, I do have a Twitter account (@pfe1223 if you want to start following, but that’s not really necessary for reasons I’ll explain later).  I started out slowly, mostly just following a few baseball people so I would know when they have a new article, podcast, or online chat.  Eventually I started to add some food writers/bloggers as well.  I’ve been using this technology in a rather passive manner, i.e. I just wait for the information to come to me.  Now, however, I have begun to post a few things via Twitter.  Mostly, it is a snapshot of some food I’ve prepared with a short little message.  Truthfully, I’ve become lazy, and have started doing this rather than the typical food write up.  However, you don’t have register for a Twitter account to see the photos.  To the right of this blog, you will see something called “Patrick’s Twitter”.  Beneath this you will see my five most recent Twitter posts which contain links to any photos.  If you want to see all of my Twitter posts (or anything older than the most recent), just click on “Patrick’s Twitter” and you’ll go to my Twitter page.

Late Breakfast & Farmers’ Market

07/25/2009, originally uploaded by MelanitaC.

So, today we had a rather late breakfast. I used up the last of the free range eggs by baking them in a tea cup rubbed with some butter, and I topped them with some salt, pepper, and Parmesan. The yolks were maybe a little too well done, but by all means still runny. Perhaps a minute less of cooking. Also, the toast strips were not as hard as I would have liked. I buttered the bread, cut into strips, and then toasted in the toaster oven. Next time I’ll set the toaster to oven to 350 and cook them until golden brown and crusty.

I also went back to the farmers’ market, but much later than last week. A few places had already closed up for the day, most notably the people who sell the goat cheese. I also could not find any raspberries. This is a problem because the raspberry and goat cheese salad is on the menu for this week. I’ll hit up the farmers’ market in Davis Square on Wednesday to try and find the berries and cheese.

I picked up a few other items on a whim (some cherries and these amazing tiny yellow plums). There are some new items on this week’s menu, so I’ll have some photos throughout the week. Stay tuned…