15. Feta and Olives with balsamic garlic sauce / 16. Caramelized onions with curry

I carmelized some onions, at the end adding a pinch of curry and cayenne, some cumin, both whole and ground.

I ate this meal with kalamata and Spanish olives and feta marinated with olive oil, garlic, and balsamic vinegar.

I had sauteed the finely chopped garlic briefly in the olive oil, to make the garlic milder and to make the oil absorb the flavor more.

The same dressing went on some sauteed spinach. I also made a simple omelet with eggs and cheese, and fried some slices of baked potato left over from the night before last. Accompanied by coffee, as you can see. I was cooking for 45 minutes, mostly because the onions took that long to carmelize properly. That allowed me to think about what else I was making. The omelet was fine, but the real star of the meal was the feta and balsamic.

14. Balsamic dipping sauce

Yesterday, in Luigi's in Ottawa, Kansas, as an accompaniment to an otherwise middling meal, we had a marvelous dipping sauce for bread made with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, basil, scallions, and maybe a few other ingredients. I will try to reproduce that at home.

Noun piles

I like the names of dishes, because you can make large and unwieldy NPs (noun phrases). The name of a dish can be like a little poem.

13. Curried carrots and potatoes in the oven

I cut washed and peeled some carrots, then halved some new potatoes, covering them with a curry butter with chopped ginger: cumin seeds, ground cumin, curry powder, chopped ginger, and cayenne, mixed with melted butter, about a T. Then I baked it in the oven for 35 minutes. The theory was that the spices would be absorbed into the vegetables.

The carrots were delicious. The potatoes needed extra butter on the table.

12. Salmon with lime and paprika

Rub some paprika (with salt and pepper and maybe a tiny bit of cumin) on some salmon filets. Take a lemon or lime and squeeze some of the juice onto the top. Cut round slices of said fruit and lay over filets. Bake them until they are done.

I made this and it melted in my mouth. [pictured here before cooking]

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A good dinner should have three balancing parts. The salmon here goes with the tomato asparagus feta salad and the curried carrots and potatoes.

11. Grilled asparagus tomato feta salad

Grill some asparagus spears. Lay them in a spoke-like pattern over slices of tomato on a place. Top with crumbled feta cheese. Dress with a vinaigrette of olive oil, red-wine vinegar, basil, a little salt and pepper.

Prepare this a few ahead of time to allow for marination.

[Update: it was good, except that the tomatoes themselves were not in season and were kind of lifeless. For once my food looked better than it tasted.]

Cupboard Meals

Johnson has the concept of "Cupboard Meals." Basically, you cook from what you already have on hand. Eggs, canned food, leftovers. I'll be trying out some of my own ideas as well as his suggestions.

American Table

This is one of the two cookbooks I own, the others having gone to ex after divorce. I got it yesterday. It is beautifully written (by poet Ronald Johnson) and fits my simple, at times simplistic, style of cooking superbly.

9. Asparagus on the grill pan / 10. Baby spinach with garlic and soy sauce

I like to take asparagus spears, as thin as possible, and cut off some of the bottoms. I brush on some olive oil and then sprinkle with dry basil, thyme, ground black pepper, salt etc... then I heat my grill pan to high and lay them across so they get grill marks. They cook rapidly so I watch over them and remove with tongs. (The oil will smoke a bit so keep the fan on.) This is easy and delicious, almost tapa-like.

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I often brown a clove or two of chopped garlic in a skillet, then add the raw spinach, which will cook rapidly. When it is done I just put a bit of soy sauce in it and serve immediately. Both these vegetable dishes are quick and easy. Much better than boiled asparagus or steamed spinach.

San Francisco Joe (2)

This morning I found a recipe for this in Ronald Johnson's The American Table.* It called for an optional grated zucchini, and 2 T of chopped parsley, and freshly ground nutmeg.

I'll stand by my chipotle and poblano pepper version. What I like about cooking is that the combinations are endless. I left onions out of a beef stew I made a few days ago. It was fine.

Omitting an ingredient, adding an ingredient, substituting an ingredient. Any modification makes the dish subtly different.

*The American poet RJ is also author of cookbooks.

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Breakfast for first day of classes was Ethiopian coffee made in a Moka pot, freshly ground and served in a cup made by my mom.


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8. Quinoa with peppers and chicken

I made some quinoa, then sauteed some red bell and poblano peppers, with some shredded chicken and a few tablespoons of canned, crushed tomatoes. It was tasty, with the seasonings I put in. Some olives on the side.

7. Black beans / Chicken with Mole

This dish did not photograph well on the plate. It looked like dogfood in the photo, with the black of the beans and the brown of the mole sauce. I opened a jar of this mole sauce, combined it a bit of it with chicken broth, per jar directions, and heated it with some leftover chicken. Meanwhile, I made a sofrito of onions and poblano peppers and combined it with a can of black beans. This was a decent lunch out of cans and jars and leftovers from the fridge.

6. Mayhew's Pasta Sauce

I begin with onions. These I brown almost to the point of caramelization, about 35-45 minutes. If you cook the onions long enough you don't have to chop them finely. When they are almost done, I add some other vegetables, like red bell peppers, poblanos, and olives, then the spices, herbs, and garlic. Spices are cayenne, cumin, a little curry powder. Herbs might be a standard Italian blend and / or basil. Then a large can of crushed tomatoes and the Italian sausage I have browned in another pan. I add some of the salted, starchy water from the pasta I happen to be cooking. Then the sauce simmers down for half an hour to 45 minutes.

No photo for this one. Use your imagination.

For vegetarian: omit sausage
For vegan: omit ssusage, don't top with cheese.

Quantities: 1 onion / a few cloves of garlic / a few ounces of sausage / 1 can of tomatoes / other veggies in proportion. Use half a box of pasta shells or rotini. For one person halve all amounts.

5. All purpose salad

I usually make salads from whatever I have on hand. Lately, I've been using kalamata and green Spanish olives, grilled poblanos and asparagus, and premade mixes of salad leaves (or spinach) and tossing it with a homemade honey mustard vinaigrette. Avocado is always good, and whatever cheese I happen to have. Aside from the lettuce itself, the mandatory ingredient is olives.

4. Quinoa broccoli soup

This was a tasty but not brilliant soup. I toasted some quinoa in a skillet, just a handful, then added it to boiling chicken stock (which I made from the whole chicken I roasted the other day.) While the quinoa was cooking, I browned some onions. When the grain was almost done (I didn't know how long it took since I've never used it before), I added some poblano peppers and broccoli. At the end I put in the browned onions and some shredded chicken breast. Seasoning was salt, peppers, and a little juice from a can of chipotles.

The broccoli did not really blend well into the soup, because I left it in pieces that were too large. The onions could have been fully carmelized first. The broth and grain were tasty, though. I found myself working through the other contents of the soup to eat the best part: the savory broth and quinoa.

3. Fried egg with white cheddar, grilled red potatoes, and poblano

I sliced two small red potatoes, grilled them on grill pan with olive oil and cayenne, then added a slice of poblano pepper, which I also grilled, meanwhile cooking an egg. I laid down some thin slice of cheddar on the egg as it was cooking. A patty of Italian sausage completed the breakfast.

Philosophical

Cooking, for me, is about sharing good food with people you love. I dislike cooking with most things out of a can, but I will use chipotle peppers or other specialty items. Fresh ingredients are ideal. I like balancing flavors, aromas, textures, and colors. I rarely follow recipes, so I will narrate what I cook rather than telling you how to do it.

I make no pretense to being a great cook. I want to improve (continually) even though my food taste good (to me) already. I believe in taking my time for things that require that, but being efficient. My cooking is fairly effortless. I either put something in the oven that will cook itself in a given time, or cook rapidly with a grill pan or skillet.

My food is mostly healthy and balanced, but I look first to taste and enjoyment. I believe in looking for health through taste.

I like, in no particular order, pungent foods (onion, garlic, horseradish, mustard), spice (cumins, paprika, Indian spices), hot peppers and hot sauces, savory gravies, stews, and sauces, salmon, pork loin, chicken when not dried out or fried, sauces made from wines, beers, and other beverages, blueberries, chocolate, coffee (to drink or cook with), limes and lemons, potatoes and tomatoes, green vegetables, especially spinach, asparagus, and broccoli, cheeses, olives!,eggs, pastas, Mexican foods, Thai and Chinese cuisines, sushi. There are few foods I don't like. These tend to be sweet, or store-bought pre-made items, like low quality bread.

I am not a good photographer, or good at making my food look good on the plate. I think it is important, but I'm simply not good at it yet. The images here will improve as I go on.

2. Dark beer beer can chicken with paprika cumin gravy

I roasted a 5 lb. whole chicken using the "beer can" method." You stick a half full (of beer) beer can in the cavity of the chicken. I rubbed it first with a spice mixture of paprika, cayenne, cumin, and sea salt, making sure I rubbed of the spice misture under the skin too. The beer was dark and the drippings were abundant, so I made a gravy out of them by adding some skim milk and flour and thickening. The chicken took about an hour and 15 minutes to cook. We ate some spinach cooked with a tiny bit of canola oil, garlic, and a dash of soy to finish, and some roasted veggies: poblano peppers, onions, and red potatoes. Leftovers are abundant today.

1. "San Francisco Joe" with chipotle

I made San Francisco Joe, which is basically a skillet casserole of onions, garlic, ground beef, egg, and spinach (that's the order you add them to the pan). I used Italian sausage instead of ground beef, as my mom showed me over Christmas break, and added half a bell pepper, and one chipotle pepper chopped very fine. Parmesan cheese is the topper. Cook vegetables until soft, add sausage or ground beef to brown, add chipotles, one egg per person, and enjoy. Top with Parmesan. (Quantities depend on how much food you want1)