melting your mouth

Well, I’m still waaayyy behind on Whisk Wednesdays, but I’m finally trying to do some catching up and posts some of the ones I’ve cooked but haven’t written up. This soup was supposed to be up a couple weeks ago, when we were still on our soup unit. Le Cordon Bleu tells us that “Madrilene” — which means Madrid-style — can be used for any dish containing tomatoes, but it is particularly appropriate for this consumme in the golden and red colors of the Spanish flag. I really enjoyed this soup since it was pretty hot when we made it, and this cold soup was very refreshing. I was also pleasantly surprised at how flavorful the broth was. I had a fair amount leftover that I froze, planning to use it at some point in place of stock.

The way this was cooked was also very interesting. You add the meat, vegetables, and egg whites to the chicken broth, and after simmering for a while they form a kind of crust on top, which is supposed to help filter out the impurities and make a perfectly clear broth (which is then additionally strained to make it even clearer). If you want some more details about how this was made, you can look a the pictures below, and of course for the recipe, get a copy of Le Cordon Bleu at Home. And as always, don’t forget to check out the results of the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group!

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I think this is the longest gap in posting I’ve had, at least in a good while, and I’m sorry. What can I say — we’ve been traveling a lot (the summer of 5 weddings is now done. phew!), I’ve been pretty busy at work, we’re trying to train for a triathlon in September, I’ve been sick for the past several days, and our camera has pooped out on us so we haven’t really been able to take pictures of what little we have been cooking! Basically, life gets in the way.

Anyway, I did still have a couple of things saved up from before the camera started screwing up, so hopefully I can now get back on the ball and these will tide me over until we can get the camera fixed!

So no more of this whining about being busy — let’s talk about pizza! Grilled pizza is something we tried for the first time on the weekend of a thousand posts I keep talking about. I have to admit, my parents’ pizza oven back in Raleigh has pretty well spoiled me for pizza. It took a few years, but they really have it down pat now and make some pretty excellent pizza. I’ve occasionally made pizza on our pizza stone (thanks, Saket!) in the oven, but it’s never quite as good as I want it to be. However, grilling pizza is really the way to go to me. This makes a nice crispy crust, seemed to be pretty forgiving if you’re not able to get the crust as thin as you’d like (that’s me!), and cooks everything pretty fast which is nice for making a lot of different types of pizza to please everyone. I’m not trying to say it’s as good as wood-fired, but it might start to be on the same spectrum, and if you’re 3,000 miles away from the pizza oven you’re used to, it makes a pretty darn good substitute.

For the dough, I of course used a recipe from my mom, which she in turn got from the folks over at Mugnaini, where they bought their pizza oven. She has done a lot of experimenting with pizza dough recipes over the year, and this one is her favorite. The topping combinations listed at the bottom are also some of the favorites my parents have refined. What do you like on your pizza? I’d always love to hear your suggestions in the comments!

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If there’s one person outside my family — which, not to brag, includes numerous excellent cooks — whose cooking I really admire and am inspired by, it would be our good family friend Kelly Branson. She can do everything from comfort food and cookies to fancy party food, always making it look easy and elegant — and everything is always delicious.

When Matt and I got married, Kelly and her daughter Meg, who I’ve been friends with since I was about 8, hosted a Bridesmaids Brunch for me. With the invitations, they enclosed recipe cards for the guests to fill out, so now I have a wonderful box of recipes from my family and friends. Kelly filled out several cards, and one of them was for her baked ziti with these roasted vegetables. Someday I’ll pass along the recipe for the baked ziti, too, which is delicious, but last weekend I just made these roasted vegetables. As Kelly says, “I could eat these roasted veggies all day - spread on crackers, pizza - cold, hot, yummy, yummy, yummy.”

Recipe after the jump….

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Matt and I had a delicious, though perhaps not all that balanced or healthy, meal of steamed mussels and artichokes the other night. We first started eating mussels while we were studying abroad in France, where they are often served with French fries as “Moules Frites.” There, mussels are eaten not with one of those silly little shellfish forks as I’ve seen them served here, but by using one of the shells as little tongs to pull the meat from the other shells. (Sorry for the blurriness in the picture, but I thought it was worth including for purposes of instruction.)

We’ve cooked them a couple times since then, and they are very easy to prepare. A recipe in this months Cooking Light inspired us to make them again. This time, we simply steamed them with chicken broth, lemon juice, and some spices, and served them with some butter for dipping.

We also steamed an artichoke, which was originally planned as an appetizer but ended up being finished about the same time as the mussels. We also had some dipping sauce for the artichoke — as I said, not very healthy, but certainly delicious! If you’ve never eaten whole artichokes before, as we hadn’t until moving to California, they may require some eating instructions too. Basically, you pull off the petals, dip them in the sauce, and scrape the little bit of pulp off with your teeth. I didn’t take pictures of that part, but Elise has a nice tutorial. Also, you want to stop eating the petals when you get to the purplish ones in the center. This part is called the “choke.” It should be scraped out, leaving the delicious “heart” of the artichoke underneath.

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Making jam in the microwave is a convenient way to make jam quickly and in small batches. This recipe makes about 2 cups, enough for a couple small jars, which is at least as much as I usually want for my own use. Though it’s possible to can the jam and then boil the jars so it can be kept for longer periods of time, since it doesn’t make that much, I usually just put it in a clean jar and then keep it in the fridge. This microwave jam recipe is adapted from Elise of Simply Recipes. It’s fairly sweet, but Elise says that reducing the sugar will likely cause the jam not to set as well (it doesn’t use any added pectin).

In this version I used blood oranges and persimmons. I’ve also made it according to the original recipe, which uses oranges and figs, and that’s delicious as well, or you can substitute whatever fruit is seasonal or on hand. (Though I think it’s better to keep in the citrus, as I think the pectin it contains may help the jam firm up.) It’s good with cheese and crackers; I like to use a strongly flavored cheese, such as gorgonzola, to stand up to the strong flavor of the jam. It’s also good with goat cheese.

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