Let's Just List Off Some Good Things, Eh?

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've actually cooked and eaten a lot. . . but I've been a bit too busy to post. So I'm just going to list off some highlights.

1. The "Gourmet" Dinner for my sister:

I saw some really nice green beans in the store, so I decided to make Clotilde's Salade de Haricorts Verts, Noix De Pecan & Jambon Cru from the Chocolate and Zucchini book. I made about a third of her recipe for the two of us. It was pretty fabulous what with the rich, toasty walnuts and the salty, porky prosciutto I used. I didn't have any cider vinegar, so I subbed red wine vinegar. I think there were no ill effects from this, but sometimes I wonder about my palate. The combination of crisp-tender beans and rich accouterments made for one delicious salad. It's a great way to enjoy green beans.

For the main course, I served Marcella Hazan's Baked Sockeye Salmon with Bell Peppers and Capers, which I talked about previously here. The recipe is on Epicurious here. It's a delicious salmon recipe and worked well with the sockeye fillets I bought. The sides were some fresh, grainy bread and a roasted potimarron squash. The squash was a beauty:

It was actually grown in Edmonton in the Campus Community Garden. The flesh was really creamy and sweet. It was quite fabulous.

2. I'm a muffin making machine:

Well, not really. But, I did make these apple-cinnamon-pecan-oatmeal muffins. I used only whole wheat flour, which might have made them a little drier than usual. It was a variation on my blueberry muffin recipe with a chopped apple and a few tablespoons of toasted pecan in place of blueberries and some cinnamon rather than lemon zest. They were pretty decent.
I also made pumpkin muffins, which came out very moist and delicious, but I didn't take a picture. Imagine muffins that are orange through and through with the sweet taste of pumpkin. I used this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. I was pretty keen to bake with pumpkin. Actually, I think I've been wanting to since last fall and winter. It seemed the perfect time at Canadian thanksgiving. I followed the recipe aside from substituting wheat flour for the buckwheat and using approximately 50-50 white and whole wheat flours. They were successful and relatively healthful recipe. I recommend trying the recipe for a tasty seasonal breakfast. My can of pumpkin was huge, so I also made a simple pumpkin soup one night and still have some leftover in the freezer, probably for a future batch of those tasty muffins.

3. Random bar cookie making:

Last Thursday, I baked some oatmeal-raisin bars during Grey's Anatomy. They are a tasty, buttery, not too sweet cookie. The recipe was in my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook and I can't find it on-line. I used whole-wheat flour for the cookies and made a half-batch in an 8-inch round pan. It's say they're good. I think they look good:
Basically, they have a butter, sugar, flour, and oatmeal base a bit like shortbread with raisin filling and more of the oat mixture crumbled on top.

Rice: Risotto and Sushi

That's right, the last two things I want to talk about from Albert's visit have something in common: rice. Therefore, it is not a stretch to put them in one post. I've already talked about both so let's call these updates.

Update #1: Risotto with Prosciutto and Peas

I said that I wanted to make risotto with/for another person. I fulfilled that desire when Albert and I recreated risotto with prosciutto and peas. He was very useful for stirring it. . . I really didn't do any of that. A risotto stirring slave. . . or assistant is a good thing. He's the risotto stirring pro modelling the finished product:
This risotto improved on my original by actually using the lemon zest and dry white wine. The "stock" I used was not so nice though since it was from bullion (naughty me). The prosciutto Albert obtained was sliced thicker than the stuff I got before. This might have actually been better in the risotto for the chunkiness, which might be better with slightly cooked prosciutto. In addition, the cheese I added for this risotto was indeed Parmesan.

We ate it with a simple salad of fresh organic greens straight out of the garden. It was ready for its close up:

Update #2: Sushi

Albert hadn't had sushi in quite some time. So, on his last night in Edmonton we went for sushi at Kyoto Japanese Cuisine on 109th. I've talked about it before and once again it was good, although we were not served water to drink although it was a hot day. The server was way too busy, so I guess it's excusable.

I had a spicy seaweed salad that was really spicy. I didn't quite expect that from Japanese food. It was a refreshing contrast to the sushi though in its texture and flavour. The texture is hard to describe. It was somewhat firm and not exactly crisp. I also had a raw oyster on the half shell, which I think was my first raw oyster. It tasted all right. I drizzled it with lemon juice but passed on the Tabasco sauce provided. I figured it would mask subtle flavours. Albert started with tofu, which he ate so I guess it was good.

For the main meal we had sushi. The salmon was fresh, rich, and good. Albert ordered a beef sushi that was just slightly seared and definitely blue-rare. It was kind of chewy and could not be bitten in half (the meat anyways). I thought it was a decent Alberta sushi. I also had surf clam sushi, which was really tougher than I would have thought. It was more like octopus than scallop. Mmmm, I love scallops but I didn't have any that night. I also had salmon roe, which I'd had before at other places. This salmon roe however was a bit of a revelation. I loved how each orange ball burst to reveal an intense taste of the sea, quite salty. Albert also had unagi, which I didn't try any of. The final sushi Albert ordered was a salmon skin roll. It seemed to contain fried tofu and salmon skin with a bit of a sweet and salty seasoning. It seemed richest of all the sushi and was quite tasty. We also received some small spicy rolls complementary that we didn't order. I honestly don't know what was in them, but they may have triggered a touch (and just a touch) of Albert's shellfish allergy.

Conclusion: Kyoto is still my preferred Edmonton sushi restaurant, not that I've tried many. But, one thing I do wonder about is why so many sushi pieces are so large but nearly impossible to eat in multiple bites.

The Risotto Revelation

For a while I have been thinking that I'd like to try my hand at making a risotto. It seemed like it would be something of an accomplishment to do, that it would prove my cooking skills. One thing that was stopping me was that I could not remember ever having eaten a risotto, I believe because my I remembered my father saying it was gross. . . maybe. Anyways, I tried my first risotto in memory at Quarry in Canmore. It was a creamy delicious almond risotto described here. The other thing I wanted before I made risotto was a good chicken stock. The chicken broth (made from bullion, naughty me) that I used to braise chicken thighs for sandwich meat seemed to fit the bill. I chilled it, skimmed off the fat, and froze it for my future risotto.

For the risotto, I also bought short grain rice. It's not aborio but calrose. I'm pretty sure that's okay, right? Anyways, it worked. I looked for a simple risotto recipe on Epicurious in which I could use my "chicken stock". The recipe I chose was this one for Risotto with Peas and Prosciutto. I of course made a few alterations, basically make a third of the recipe. I used
less butter than called for and didn't add any to finish as it already had a creamy texture and the comments with the recipe suggested it was unnecessary. I believe I also used less cheese than would be 1/3 of the recipe and used Roman in place of Parmigiano. People on Epicurious commented that there was too much cheese in the original recipe and it made for a sticky risotto. I omitted completely the white wine, as there wasn't enough reason to buy a bottle for my risotto experiment and I omitted the lemon zest. . . because I'm lazy? Hell, this was my special Sunday lunch, I'd do whatever I wanted.

I prepared the risotto as directed otherwise, but found that instead of 20 minutes it took a good 45 minutes for the rice to be of an edible tenderness, which I think was still al dente. That's a lot of stirring, risotto will beef up your stirring arm boys. My finished product looked pretty good:
It was a creamy, starchy bowl of bliss. However, I found myself adding quite a bit of black pepper, because it needed the slight kick. I also think that more peas would be good what with the colour, sweetness, and healthfulness they add. The prosciutto was really tasty too, nice and salty. The elements of this risotto really go well together, not surprising since peas and prosciutto is pretty classic. I would love to make it again in a larger portion to share with a friend. I think it would be really impressive. . . and we could use the wine and lemon zest for a more complex flavour, especially the wine. Anyways, I'm sure this won't be my last risotto.