FreshDirect recipes

I haven't used freshdirect since fairway opened in Brooklyn, but they have a new feature now that is interesting. You can browse thru recipes (some from French Laundry all the way thru to Beer Can Chicken) and once you pick one, FreshDirect will automatically add all ingrediance required for the recipe to your order. Fun. Good recipes too.

You can check it out here.

Cheese Blintz with Blueberry Sauce

recipe #99

I have never had a blintz before today. Infact, I wasn't even quite sure what they were. So today I made them. And they were gooood.

I used a recipe from epicurious, which after some research seemed to be pretty authentic:
CHEESE BLINTZES WITH BLUEBERRY SAUCE
For crêpes
1 1/2 cups whole milk
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter, melted

For filling
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) farmer cheese
1/2 cup (4 ounces) large-curd cottage cheese (4% milk fat)
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch salt

For sauce
4 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (from 5 half-pint containers, picked over)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

For frying
4 tablespoons butter

Special equipment
Iron skillet or crêpe pan
Flexible metal or plastic spatula

Make crêpes
In blender, combine milk and eggs. Add flour and salt and blend at low speed until smooth, less than 1 minute. Let batter stand 1/2 hour.

Have ready large plate or platter. Place skillet over moderately high heat, brush lightly with some melted butter, and heat until butter just begins to smoke. Pour 1/4 to 1/3 cup batter into pan, tilting to spread into thin, even layer. Cook until crêpe begins to "blister," edges curl slightly away from skillet, and underside is lightly browned, about 1 to 2 minutes. Use flexible spatula to flip crêpe out of skillet and onto plate, cooked side up.

Repeat with remaining batter, brushing skillet lightly with melted butter before cooking each crêpe. Stack crêpes, cooked side down, on plate and let cool.

Make filling
In large bowl, mash together farmer and cottage cheeses until blended. Add egg yolk, melted butter, sugar, and salt, and mix until combined.

Place 1 crêpe, cooked side up, on a plate. Place 2 tablespoons filling in center, and fold up bottom to cover filling. Fold down top, then flip over and fold in sides. Flip over again and place on a large plate. Repeat with remaining crêpes and filling. (Can be made up to 1 day ahead; cover and chill until ready to fry.)

Make sauce
In large saucepan, combine 3 cups blueberries, sugar, and cornstarch. Set over moderately low heat and stir gently until sugar dissolves. Raise heat to moderately high and boil, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes. Remove from heat and gently stir in remaining blueberries.

Fry blintzes
Heat 1 tablespoon butter in iron skillet over moderately high heat. Add 3 blintzes and fry until golden brown on both sides, about 1 to 2 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining blintzes. Serve hot with sauce.

Makes 12 blintzes

Basically it seems that a blintz is just a crepe that is filled with something and served with or without a sauce. I am going to try a savory blintz, maybe with potatoes and mushrooms next. They are very easy and very much a winter/fall comfort food.

Raisin & Almond Stuffed Kabobs aka Lame Kabobs

not good at all

recipe #98

This officially ends my month + stint of cooking from Classic Indian Cooking. These kabobs were B.A.D. They may have had legs if I doubled the spices and grilled them and stuffed them with something else. Of course then it would be a whole other recipe. I made a 'relish' that she suggested go with it which is basically just raw soaked onions, lemon juice and green chilies.

"relish"

Tiny Burger and The Ambien Cookbook

I found 2 wonderful things today on boingboing

The first is this cute little thing:

this is actual food

And The Ambien Cookbook, beacause I look cooking with mind altering substances. And ambien is some wacky stuff.

Deep Fried Coke

I didn't make it, some genius in Texas did. I love it. Gives me some ideas.

Carrot Ice Cream with Almonds

recipe #97

Yesterday I had one of those must-get-rid-of-everything-in-the-fridge days and carrots were one of the things about to go bad. I had made an Indian carrot pudding last week that I though might translate well into an ice cream if adjusted.

Here is what went into it:
Carrot Ice Cream with Almonds
2 cups whole milk
2 packed cups grated carrots (must be grated)
1/2 c. sugar
handful of blanched almond slivers (unsalted)
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1/3 c. heavy cream

Boil milk for 10 minutes. Add carrots and boil for another 15 minutes. Add Almonds, sugar and cardamom. Cook for 5 minutes. Add cream. Stir. Cool to room temperature or cooler. Prepare in ice cream maker.

This stuff is very very tasty and lovely. Do not skip the almonds, they add a nice texture.

Hard Cider

recipe #96

I went apple picking with my sister last week with the sole purpose of getting a boat load of apples I could turn into booze. I peeled them, ran them thru the juicer I have used maybe only twice in the 5 years I have owned it and then poured it in a seltzer bottle.

I read a few different websites that tell you how to make hard cider. Some are very picky and specific with wine making ingredient. others just say shove it in a cool dark place semi-covered for a month or so. I choose the middle route. I added some sugar, a bit of yeast and covered with plastic with only a tiny hole poked in the top. I'm going to try it in 3 weeks.

UPDATE:
When I woke up this morning the cider had done this:

spewing all over my wall

The final product can be seen here.

wrapping up my Indian cooking phase

saag gosht and sambaar

recipes #89 - 95

I'm getting ready to stop with the Indian cooking already. Here are the last few dishes that I made. All from Classic Indian Cooking by Julie Sahni.

This was my lunch of leftover Saag Gosht (Lamb in Spinach Sauce). Chaunk Gobhi aur Sem Sambaar (Spicy Brussel Spout Stew with green bean and lentils) and some lime pickle on the side.

bhartha

The bhartha (spicy smoked eggplant) was pretty good and very easy to make.

Aloo Mirch

Same with the Aloo Mirch (tumeric potatoes with peppers). The recipe called for green peppers, but I had orange ones that I think were much prettier and taste better too. This is good with riata.

I also made mysore rasam (mysore spicy lentil broth), khatte channe (chick peas in tamarind sauce) and a terrible cornish hen with apricot sauce I'm not even going to go look up the indian name for. To be avoided at all costs. More pictures as I re-heat.

Aquavit Gravlax

gravlax and mustard dill sauce from the Aquavit cookbook with is filled with wonderful foods

recipe #88

This is an amazingly simple thing to do. It is also sort of like magic as you can turn a $15-20 piece of fish into a $50-60 piece of delicious fish.

Here is the basic recipe from the Aquavit cookbook:
Gravlax
2.5-3 lb. filet if salmon w/ skin on one side- as fresh as possible
1/2 c. salt
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. white pepper
large amount of fresh dill chopped

wash and pat dry fish. Mix together salt, sugar and pepper. sprinkle skin side of fish with mixture. Place fish in large glass dish and pour the rest of the salt/sugar mixture over the fish, covering it. Then, spinkle mixture with an even coat of chopped dill. Cover and leave in a cool place for 6 hr. After 6 hrs. cover well and leave in fridge for 36 hrs. After 36 hrs., scrape off mixture and dill, slice up and serve.

Good. Very good. It is sort of odd because about 12 hours into the curing process the fish is basically sittingin a huge pool of liquid. This worried me the first time I did it, but it is normal, just pour it off.

Eating at Playa del Fuego

Just a couple of shots from Playa del Fuego this weekend.

Orson with sandwich in his wee camp chair

our pornj food prep area/van hood

the only thing Lola ate the whole time were her candy necklaces

This is pretty much the only thing that I made there that was new. It is called aloo chat and is basically an indian mint potato salad. Doesn't sound awesome but it is. Easy too. Basically it is just boiled and peeled potatoes, chopped mint, chopped cucmbers, lemon juice (or mango powder), salt and roasted crushed cumin and corriander seeds.

recipe #87

aloo chat

I used tiny purple potatoes I found at the farmers market in Troy NY. I think that purple foods are the New Black.