Let the Gardening Begin!

Well, I finally got the garden out, or about two thirds of it anyway. This is a project I'd started last Spring, but when I killed all of my seedlings I lost interest. This year I was extra careful with the watering, feeding and hardening off of the seedlings, and while most of them lived, they turned out pretty spindly and pathetic. So I threw in the towel. I went out and bought a bunch of starts this weekend, and I'm okay with that... I am gardening! I've got the first two beds planted with tomatoes (Roprecco, San Marzano, Oregon Spring and Green Zebra), peppers (Cal Wonder and Red Beauty), cucumbers (Lemon and Burpless), and one variety each of snap peas and zucchini. I haven't decided what will go in the third bed yet, but I have a hunch it will be squash and melons of one sort or another, and perhaps some eggplant. I also have to finish the cloches by adding plastic on the sides and ends which can be rolled up for ventilation during the day. That'll be next weekend's project.

I've also got a separate herb garden, with basil, parsley and chives so far (to be finished off with some tarragon, thyme and purple basil):


And here's a good shot of my neighbor's cat chillin' on the patio:

Meme of the Moment: The Naked Fridge

Showing the contents of one's refrigerator seems to be all the rage lately on the fugosphere (food blogosphere, that is...), and while my fridge isn't nearly as attractive as some of the gleaming Sub-Zeros I've checked out online lately, I thought I'd have a crack at it myself nonetheless. This isn't a bad idea, really. It raises an interesting anthropological question: How do the contents of one's refrigerator reflect the personality and culture of the owner of said chillbox? I'm operating on four hours' sleep at the moment, so I'm not touching that one, but any comments on this would be more than welcome.

As for my fridge, well let's see, what's in there... A lot of locally produced items, such as organic yogurt (Nancy's), cage free eggs (Stiebrs), some cheese (Rogue Creamery), canned fish (Old Oregon Smoke House), butter (Rogue creamery again), some tasty Oregon produce (from, well... Oregon), a couple of rotting Nanaimo bars (not sure where those are from, but I think it's safe to say they're not from Nanaimo...) and, horror of horrors, some Kraft salad dressing (not local... Cincinnati, maybe?). And a whole bunch of other stuff that needs to be thrown out!

The freezer offers some more interesting items, many of which are leftovers from recent culinary projects, such as potato-leek puree, lamb reduction and a few ice cube trays full of chicken stock. You'll also notice, in the upper right corner, ten pounds of antelope bones, which will soon be turned into antelope stock (and subsequently, antelope demi-glace; watch for that in a future post).

Up top, we have a jar of all-purpose flour, a bag of bread flour, bamboo skewers, some sushi rice and a box labelled "toaster" (I'm pretty sure there's a toaster in there).

All right then, I've shown you mine... Now show me yours!

Victim's Eye View... or... Yes, but will it puree a HandiCam?

I have to tell you, I'm getting a little tired of cheese these days. Not just any cheese, but a specific kind: Cheddar. Mind you, I'm not getting tired of eating it, but rather of watching it age, a la Cheddarvision. A lot of attention has been paid to this one particular wheel of fromage maturing away in Somerset (I'm sure it will sell for zillions once it's finally done), and while it pleases me to no end that so much attention is being paid to an artisanally produced food product, I think the time has come to move on to a new, infintely more entertaining internet phenomenon: Will it blend?. Now here's a product testimonial! Sure, it's a marketing gimmick, but it's good for a laugh. Check it out.

Pasta Weekend Part Three: Butternut Squash Tortelloni with Sage Butter...

...and pasta weekend is hereby brought to a close! I won't subject you to a keynote speech... This final installment was based on one of Biba Caggiano's recipes, from her book Biba's Taste of Italy. Or more accurately, it is one of Biba Caggiano's recipes, from said book. And as such, I'm not going to post the recipe, as posting someone else's recipe verbatim on my blog really doesn't seem kosher. It is, after all, copyrighted material. You'll just have to go buy the book. But I will tell you this much: The filling was made with baked butternut squash, Parmigiano-Reggiano, nutmeg, salt and pepper. And the sauce was made from... well, sage and butter. The pasta, as with the previous two installments, was based on Mario Batali's recipe, but with a couple extra egg yolks added this time. Here are some photos of the process, for your enjoyment:

It all begins with the pasta volcano:


Next up, the Butternut/Parmigiano filling:


Finally, the evolution of the tortelloni:




Add to that some chiffonaded sage briefly cooked in melted butter and you've got yourself some good vittles! This was hands down the tastiest of this weekend's pasta experiments. The sage butter was nothing short of sublime, and paired perfectly with the squash filling. Biba Caggiano is a genious. This is one I'll be filing away...

Pasta Weekend Part Two: Black Pepper Tagliatelle with Red Sauce and Seared Tuna

I invited Jenni over tonight to try my reworking of one of Mario Batali's recipes, Tagliatelle with Fresh Tuna Ragu. I added pepper to the tagliatelle, and rather than incorporate the tuna into the sauce, I seared it and served it on top. You can get the pasta recipe from the recent ravioli post. Just add 1-2 Tbsp of finely ground black pepper, and after rolling the pasta, cut it into strips 3/4 of an inch wide. Here's a nice shot of the tagliatelle drying:

The sauce is a pretty simple tomato sauce, which you can play around with any number of ways. I stayed pretty true to the basic tomato sauce, but did add some oregano. Here's my version:

Ingredients:
One 28 oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand, liquid reserved
1/4 C of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
One small carrot, finely chopped or shredded
Three cloves of garlic, minced
One Tbsp each of fresh thyme and oregano, chopped
One Tsp of fresh rosemary, chopped

In a 3 quart saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat and cook the onions until soft and translucent, about ten minutes. Add the carrot and cook for another five minutes. Add the garlic, thyme and oregano and continue to cook for two minutes. Add the tomatoes and reserved liquid and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes, longer if necessary. What you're looking for is a nice thick consistency here. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Once the sauce has been simmering for a while and is getting close to the right consistency, turn the heat to low and just let it bubble away. Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil, about one Tbsp, in a saute or frying pan (It's best to get the pan on the heat for a minute, then add the oil and give it about another minute to come up to temperature. You can tell it's hot enough when currents within the hot oil cause it to take on a "rippling" appearance; oh, and do NOT use a non-stick pan). Season the tuna with salt and pepper and sear for about two minutes on each side, longer if you don't like your tuna particularly rare, and slice into 1/4 inch strips. Alternately, you could slice the tuna into strips first and sear for about 30 seconds on each side. Place the tuna into an oven safe dish, cover with foil and set into a warm, but not hot, oven (I turned the oven up to about 400 for 10 or 15 minutes, then turned it off about 10 minutes before I put the tuna in, and it was just the right temperature).

Once the tuna's hanging out in the oven, drop your pasta into some heavily salted boiling water and cook until it's al dente. For my pasta, which was pretty thick, this is anywhere from seven to ten minutes. Thinner tagliatelle will take much less time to cook, so test early and test often.

Strain the pasta, plate it with a little sauce, add the tuna and you're ready to rumble. This serves two.

Pasta Weekend Part One and a Half: VooDoo Doughnut

Okay, so doughnuts can't technically be considered pasta, and most of this post is about music anyway, but just bear with me for a bit.

My friend John and I went to Dante's this evening to see Tapes 'n Tapes, who are currently on tour with Ladyhawk and The Harlem Shakes. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to catch any of the Shakes, but Ladyhawk went on just as we had our beers in hand. Ladyhawk is a terrible name for a band, if you ask me, but they were quite impressive. Sort of an agressive roots rock sort of thing, what Richmond Fontaine might sound like if they were a bit more dischordant. Their lead guitarist pulled some very interesting noises out of his guitar, in an almost Kevin Shields sort of way.

Tapes 'n Tapes were great as well, although it took them a few songs to get up to speed, and their keyboard player seemed to be having some issues. They played quite a bit of new material (they apparently have a new record slated for a fall release), as well as most of the songs from their current record, The Loon, and a few older songs. They played Coachella a week ago. Wish I could've gotten down there to see that! It's always good to see a band on the verge of breaking. You can tell they're excited and having a lot of fun, but at the same time they're still a little hungry. There's a pretty funny clip on YouTube that they were involved in, by the way. Check it out here.

So here's where this becomes food-related. After the show, John and I walked across the street to VooDoo Doughnut, which opens at 10 pm, and does a brisk post-Dantes business with doughnuts such as the Blood Filled VooDoo Doughnut (which oozes jam when stabbed), the Memphis Mafia (chocolate chips, banana and peanut butter) and my favorite, the Maple Bacon Bar. Mmmm... Post-Rock doughnuts...

Pasta Weekend Part One: Fettuccine Alfredo Reconsidered

This weekend is hereby declared Pasta Weekend! What does that mean, you ask? Well, I suppose it means that I'll be sick of pasta by the end of the weekend. At any rate, I've decided to make three pasta dishes over the next few days, based on recipes by three of the greats: Linda Carucci, Mario Batali and Biba Caggiano. I began with a re-examination of Fettucine Alfredo, inspired by a recipe in Linda Carucci's book Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks.

Fettuccine Alfredo is sort of my ultimate comfort food, and I've been making it, any number of ways, for years and years. Rather than tossing the pasta in the sauce, I've typically cooked the pasta and the sauce separately, pouring the sauce over the pasta in the end. This would seem heretical, going by most of the recipes we see, but for the fact that Fettuccine Alfredo is a variation on fettuccine al burre, created in 1914 by a Roman chef named Alfredo di Lelio, primarily for North American tourists. Which is to say that it really doesn't exist in the canon of Italian cuisine. And as far as I'm concerned, that means that anything goes in the preparation of this dish.

The recipe of Linda's that I used as my jumping off point was Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp and Peas. A couple of things in this recipe caught my eye, the main thing being the use of egg yolks, which I hadn't seen before (they imparted a silky texture to the sauce). Another surprise in her recipe was the omission of onions and garlic (!!!). And she's included peas, something I normally associate with Carbonara.

In addition to making a few minor adjustments to amounts and proportions of the ingredients, I deviated from this recipe on several fronts. First, I included onions (shallots, in this case) and garlic. And I got rid of the peas. And I went with rock shrimp. Apart from that, I stuck pretty close to the original. My version, by the way, serves two (with leftovers). Here goes:

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2/3 lb fettuccine
6 Tbsp butter
2 C heavy cream, room temperature
1/2 lb rock shrimp
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 C fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
4 leaves of basil, chiffonaded

Set a large saute (or frying) pan over medium heat for about a minute. Add the oil, give it a minute to come to temperature, then add the shallot and saute until just translucent, about two or three minutes. Add the garlic and continue to saute for another minute. Transfer the shallot and garlic to a small bowl. Wipe out the pan, and set back over medium heat. Add 2 Tbsp of the butter, and when the butter begins to foam, add the rock shrimp. Saute the shrimp until they've just turned pink. Transfer them to the bowl with the shallots and garlic. Wipe out the pan once again.

If you're using dried pasta, bring some heavily salted water to a boil in a large saucepan or a stockpot. Once the water is boiling, add your pasta. Now you can turn your attention to the sauce. Melt the rest of the butter over low heat in the saute pan. When the butter is nearly, but not completely, melted, add the cream and stir to combine as the butter continues to melt. Raise the heat to medium high and bring the butter and cream just to a boil. Reduce the heat back to low, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Using dried pasta will give you just enough time to work the sauce while the pasta cooks. If you're using fresh pasta, which will cook much more quickly than dried, drop it into the boiling water after the cream and butter have come to a boil and the heat has been brought back down.

When the pasta is done (I used dried whole wheat fettuccine, which takes about 10 minutes), strain and transfer to the saute pan. Toss the pasta with the sauce, bring to a boil, and immediately reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Add the reserved shrimp, shallots and garlic and simmer until the sauce has thickened a bit, maybe a minute. Whisk several spoonfuls of the sauce, one at a time, into the egg yolks to temper them, then stir the yolks into the pasta and sauce. Remove from the heat, sprinkle in 3/4 of the cheese, and toss.

Plate and garnish with the chiffonaded basil and the remaining cheese. Serve five minutes ago, and enjoy!