Sunday, October 09, 2005

Sushi and eggs

Just a quick update on the produce I got on Thursday night: green beans, red beets, cucumbers, eggplant, green leaf lettuce, purple onions, oranges, apples, and cherry tomatoes. I think I'm going to make pickled beets using a Martha Stewart recipe I found that looks pretty simple. Yum, pickled beets! Course, my husband with have none, as he despises all things pickled, the poor guy. He's really missing out on so much. Not sure what to do with the eggplant or green beans yet, as I don't usually cook either of them. Also, the eggplant it nice and tiny, so it shouldn't have any seeds, or at least R tells me so.

So last night Kyle and I went out with R&A for supper good, affordable sushi. Oh, the joy of living in San Diego: all the sushi I can stuff my face with for less than 20 bucks! We got some standard goodies, such as a mixed rainbow roll and a spicy tuna roll, but also a less traditional roll named the Hot Hot CA roll. This roll is basically a California roll smothered in a hot sauce (mix of chili paste and asian mayo), heated in a broiler till toasty warm. Soooo good! And of course, I had my yummy salmon roe nigiri, which is basically just fish eggs on rice. Good and salty, with a fun bursting sensation in your mouth when you eat on. Mmmm, sushi is so good!



What else, what else? Made a smoked salmon frittata tonight, which turned out really well. Also steamed some asparagus I had gotten on special, so it was still a pretty healthy night greens-wise, even with all the eggs. Speaking of eggs, I tried my hand at making hollandaise sauce with my mini food processor, and it was so easy! There's this little set of holes on the lid just perfect for dribbling in fat to sauces so that a nice emulsion is formed. At least one sauce fear is conquered, although I'll be trying it again soon to make sure I have the by-hand technique down (ie the whisk). But now I shall sign off, and watch "From the Earth to the Moon" with my hubby, the Tom Hanks-produced mini series on space travel.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Fuschia fun

Lots to tell so far, at least cooking-wise. Didn't do too much last weekend, but Kyle made me some yummy baked pork chops with plums and green chard, which was good as we had more chard than I knew what to do with. In fact, on Monday I made a frittata with red chard, thyme and yogurt cheese, which was quite tasty if a bit dense. Of course, it was dense because I forgot to add the milk to the egg mixture, so the resulting frittata had an odd texture. And I finally used the red cabbage to make borscht, a tasty cabbage beet soup popular in Russia and Poland. Turned out there's hundreds of ways to make borscht, much like chicken soup, but the version I tried was pretty good. A bright fuschia color, thanks to the beets :) However, since the version I tried left me with tons of soup, I think I need a break from pink soups, at least for a bit. But the pity is that I still have half of a head of red cabbage, and no idea what to do with it. Maybe I'll just try braising it or something.