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tinned sardine kedgeree

12/5/2016

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I spend a lot of my working hours at home by myself. And while a lot of that time I end up tasting recipes I'm working on and just skipping lunch altogether, when I do cook for myself I love anything with tinned fish. And sardines are a personal favorite. In fact, if you were to check my purse at this very moment there's a 90% chance you'd find a tin of sardines. This is an interpretation of a kedgeree, as it's served tossed with crisp iceberg. But I think it's a worthy play on a classic.

Serves 1

Drizzle of oil
2 scallions, finely sliced
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 cup cooked rice
4 sprigs parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
​Wedges of lime
1 can sardines, packed in water
1 egg, hard boiled
1/2 head iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced

1. In a small skillet heat a drizzle of oil over medium high heat until shimmering, then add scallions and curry and cook until scallions begin to soften and curry smells toasted, about 5 minutes, add 2 tablespoons of water and cooked rice and mix until evenly incorporated. Remove from heat and add parsley. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lime juice.
2. Drain sardines and toss with rice mixture. Slice hard boiled eggs and fold into rice mixture as well. Toss everything with thinly sliced iceberg and eat in front of your laptop.
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CSA's

3/10/2011

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For the last few months we've been eating primarily CSA's (fish and meat) and while we're doing the CSF again and sharing it with friends, I think I'm going to take a break from the meat CSA.  The meat is phenomenal, and the cuts have been decent.  Although I've had enough pork chops for the next little while.  But between the meat piling up in my freezer, and writing my new Sunday Supper column I never get to experiment with new recipes.  Or frankly just cook what I want to eat that night.

I'm excited to get back into the veg CSA this summer though.  Especially with this whole weekday daytime vegan thing I've been into.
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Vegan during the day - Week 5

3/4/2011

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A month later, and I'm having some issues with upholding my vegan during the day standards.  This week was my American birthday, so I was taken to my favorite oyster bar for lunch, that's one day down.  And both the day before and after I was recipe writing for SeriousEats - and it's very hard to write a good recipe without tasting what you're cooking.

Basically, I'm not sure how I can really keep doing this in a strict way and do any/all of my jobs with any degree of competency. 

I'm going to keep trying and see how it works out.
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Vegan during the day - Week 3

2/18/2011

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This is week 3 of my vegan during the weekdays experiment, I've got to say it's going very well.  I've gotten used to the constant hunger, and the eating everything I can get my hands on (outside of meat, dairy, refined sugar and flour) which means mostly vegetables.

I'm feeling really good.  And I'm cooking things that I normally wouldn't.  This week I ate quite a few veg/tofu temaki (handrolls) and really loved them.  Although making them with brown rice is a little challenging, but worth the effort.  Avocado is making a regular appearance in my fridge for the first time in a long while.  Lots of spinach.  And tofu.  I really, really like tofu.  The time I spent in Japan taught me to approach tofu as an ingredient, not merely a meat substitute.  It's delicious.

Outside of the temaki I ate cold peanut sesame noodles twice this week, and I think I'm really getting that dish down.  I've been using whole wheat spaghetti, tofu, cucumbers, red peppers and cooked and drained spinach.  The dressing is a tablespoon of natural peanut butter mixed with some soy sauce, hoisin, sriracha, toasted sesame oil and a pinch of salt with some water to loosed the whole thing up.

It's amazing just how good I feel, and how in the evenings when I eat meat, dairy and white flour I find myself eating a lot more vegetables too.  The ingredient that I've been really focusing on is the white flour - really good crusty bread has been all I want.

I'll finalize the cold peanut sesame noodle recipe next week and post it.
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Vegan during the day - Week 1

2/4/2011

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I decided to make this week a 4 day week in honour of Chinese New Year ( I had lunch with Lilly Jan today and could not say no to a big bowl of wonton soup.  With roast pork.  And a half a roast duck).

But I was a strict vegan from when I woke up until 5pm for four days.  And I've got to admit it was harder than I thought it would be.  There were a lot of whole grains, and a ton of vegetables.  I have never eaten this many vegetables, and still feel hungry. 

While I was waiting for Lilly to show up for our lunch date I spent some time in Super 88 (one of Boston's Asian groceries) and bought a bunch of tofu, a large selection of noodles, and quite a few vegetables.

My plan for next week is a lot of dal, some vegetable stock and a big pot of beans.
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Thinking about going vegan....

1/27/2011

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For either the first two meals of the day during the work week, or dinner four days a week.  I just ordered Mark Bittman's book - and I'm hoping it will inspire me.  The thing is, we participate in a CSF, as well a meat CSA which provide us with sustainably raised/caught meat and fish.  I feel very little guilt when it comes to where my food comes from, I just think it would be a great exercise in cooking/eating.

The issue is the work I do is all things food, and it's very hard to sustain any sort of diet when you are either constantly eating, or constantly cooking. 

That being said, I need to go on a diet of some sort. 
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Split Pea Soup with Serrano Ham

12/9/2010

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Another day with my Christmas ham.  With all the trimmings from my first few slices of ham I decided to make a split pea soup, as well as render some of the fat. 
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Fat on the left, ham on the right.  The fat is going into a pot to render for another day, and the ham is destined for my soup.  Here's the recipe for a really nice cup of soup on a cold day.  If you don't have any serrano ham, any other type of ham or bacon would work just as well.  This soups takes a few shakes of vinegary hot sauce very well - this ugly sauce has become a favorite at my house.

Split Pea Soup with Serrano Ham

Serves 4 as an appetizer, 2 as a hearty main

olive oil
150 grams ham, diced in 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped
7 cups stock (chicken or vegetable), divided
1/2 pound (1 cup) green split peas
1 potato, diced
salt and pepper

Heat 2 quart stock pot over medium high heat.  Add a drizzle of olive oil in pan and heat until shimmering.  Add diced ham and cook until crisp and fragrant, about 4 minutes.

Remove ham and reserve for later.  Add onion, garlic, carrot and celery and cook until beginning to brown, 5-8 minutes.

Add five cups of stock to pot, reserve remaining stock.  Bring to a simmer and add split peas.  Cook for 15-20 minutes until split peas begin to soften.

Once peas begin to soften, add potato and ham to the pot and continue to simmer until peas are completely soft and potatoes are cooked.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve with biscuits and dark beer.
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Comforting Grilled Corn Chowder

7/20/2010

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Chowdah
Something simple and filling - inspired by my CSA veggies and leftover corn from the weekend.  Easily becomes vegetarian by substituting the bacon for 4 T butter.

Serves 4-6

3 ears corn
4 strips bacon
1/2 c white wine (or water or stock - for deglazing)
2-4 scallions, thinly sliced (reserve green ends as garnish)
1 small bulb fennel, diced
1 carrot, diced
4 heaping T flour
4 c milk
1 can creamed corn
3 potatoes, diced
salt and black pepper

1) Preheat grill to medium high, remove husks from corn and grill until just beginning to char.  Once cool enough to handle remove kernels from cob and reserve.
2) Cook in large stock pot (big enough to hold all ingredients) bacon until just crisp, remove reserving fat in bottom of pit.
3) Add sliced whites of scallions, and some of the greens to rendered bacon fat and cook until soft. Deglaze with wine.
4) Add fennel and carrot and sweat for 4-6 minutes until beginning to soften.
5) Sprinkle cooked veg with flour and cook stirring constantly until veggies evenly coated.
5) Add milk, stirring constantly.  Once milk thickens slightly add creamed corn and diced potatoes and simmer 20-30 minutes.
6) Season with salt and pepper, serve with cold white wine and tossed salad.

*I've got to point out that depending on personal preference for flavour and texture veggies can be added or taken away, and the liquid amounts (less liquid for a thicker chowder, more for a thinner one) and types (wine, stock, water, cream etc) can be changed.  This is just a very basic outline of what I came up with using the ingredients I had on hand.
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Vegetable stock.

6/8/2009

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I've been spending a lot of time with offal and meat in general because of my new project www.eatingnosetotail.com.  Right now I'm making a tongue and I'm going to serve it with Fergus Henderson's green sauce.  The recipe for this sauce called for half and quarter bunches of various herbs.  So now I have a surplus of beautiful herbs in my kitchen.

I decided to make risotto for dinner tonight, and having no stock in the freezer I decided to make a vegetable stock with some of the herbs, the top of a giant leek, the peelings from two carrots, a few cloves of garlic and some extra already chopped onion.  For good measure I threw in some peppercorns and a few fresh bird chili's.  My apartment smells heavenly right now. 

Thank god it's summer, because I'm being reminded how much I love vegetables.  And with my latest project making my life fairly meaty it was really good to be reminded how wonderful a meal from the garden can be.

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My apologies for the blurry picture, all the batteries in the house have simultaneously gone dead, so this was taken with the built in camera on my computer.
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