Babe :-('s and food :-)'s
May. 24th, 2010 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
averygoodun42I just treated Babe's legs for bugbite wounds. He reacts like I do, the poor kid. Two of the bites are weeping already, and one is looking scary, though it hasn't blistered (or the blister has been rubbed away). Fortunately, I managed to clean off the scariest looking bits, which means it was lint, not blood poisoning or gangrenous skin remnants. :-)
On the plus side, as I told him a couple of times, at least he has good circulation, so with the neosporin and bandages (humongous band-aids) his body should do its job and he'll be better in no time.
Sucks, though, passing this trait on to him as well all the others.
:-(
And on that appetizing note, I'd like to report a really nice couple of days of food. I've made two salads, so far, with at leasst half the greens coming from my beds. The mesclun is going gangbusters, though the romaine(?) is trying to take over by shading everything else to death. I'm not letting it, however. It's too yummy to get away with that.
So yesterday, I made an awesome salad for a potluck, though it is missing something, I just haven't figured out what. It was equal parts fresh mesclun, fully grown romaine and torn up red chard leaves (stems removed), tossed with cucumber, slivers of celery and almonds and crumbled up white stilton with dates and orange (OMG!YUM!). It needs a dressing, though I haven't figured out what, exactly. I'm thinking a yogurt based dressing, though I don't know what I'd season it with. Something subtle and spicy... and maybe middle eastern in flavor, like cumin and coriander. With orange blossom water? Nah, that would be lost.
Anyway, it was good, but not quite perfect. I'll need to play around with it a bite more. Aw shucks.
Tonight, I made madras veggies (onions, garlic, carrots, rutabaga, green beans, broccoli and zucchini) and chicken tikka, without the tikka. Or the grilling/broiling. Basically, it was chicken korma without the coconut. It was super yummy, too.
* 3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted [or a 1-2 teaspoons ground cumin ;-)]
* 3/4 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted
* 2 cups whole-milk yogurt
* 4 garlic cloves, chopped [only four? Hah!]
* 1 (1 1/2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil plus additional for greasing pan
* 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice [the only thing I measured properly]
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
* 1/2 teaspoon garam masala (Indian spice mixture)
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
* 5 pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes [I used four = ~3 lbs)
Preparation
Purée all ingredients except chicken in a blender until spices are well ground. [Common sense tip: blend all the herbs together till smooth then add the yogurt, otherwise the coriander and cumin seeds will remain whole. If you don't have a blender or don't trust it, grind the seeds up with mortar and pestle]
Put chicken in a large bowl, or divide between 2 large sealable plastic bags, and add yogurt mixture, stirring or turning to coat. Marinate chicken, covered and chilled (turning occasionally if using bags), at least 4 hours.
Soak skewers in water 30 minutes. While skewers are soaking, bring chicken to room temperature.
Preheat broiler and brush a broiler pan lightly with oil.
Divide chicken among skewers (about 5 cubes per skewer), leaving an 1/8-inch space between cubes, and arrange about 5 skewers across pan. Broil chicken about 4 inches from heat, turning over once, until browned in spots and just cooked through, 9 to 12 minutes total.
Transfer cooked skewers to a large platter and, if desired, cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Broil remaining chicken in same manner. Remove chicken from skewers and serve warm or at room temperature.
[My prep was putting one bag's worth of chicken and sauce in a pot and cooking stove-top till done. When the chicken was done, I removed it, brought the sauce back to boil and mixed in a bit of corn starch (at least, that's what I think was in that bottle) to thicken it up a tad. Once that was done, poured the sauce over the chicken and served.]
I have a bag of this chicken mixture still marinating in the fridge. Probably I'll break out the grill tomorrow (it's supposed to be 93F tomorrow! EW!) and do a proper tikka treatment, but I'm tempted to add coconut and ground almonds to the sauce and make a(n approximation of a) proper korma. I love chicken korma so.
We'll see. It'll probably depend on how hot the house is. And if I manage to get a refill on the propane...
I also made some date bars, though I overcooked them a bit in the oven. (Fifteen-twenty fresh dates and 2/3 cup unsweetened coconut whomped in the whomper till blended, spread 3/8" thick on cookie sheet and baked in 350F oven however long (fifteen minutes? twelve?) then left to cool in oven another twnety minutes or so.) I need to experiment with them a bit more to figure out how to cook them in the oven (as opposed to the microwave, where I cooked them before) so that they turn out the same. Though, it has occurred to me that maybe the oven is the wrong way to cook them. Maybe they need to be steamed... Don't think so, though. Probably need to reduce the oven temp by fifty to a hundred degrees and only have the heat on for five minutes rather than twelve. Or however long it was. (Such a rigorous scientific method I use, eh?) Then let them set until the oven is cool. Ish.
And all this cooking because I couldn't do laundry (the manganese lining of the city's pipes is breaking down, so as the water company is flushing the pipes, the water gets extra dirty. Again, and again and again. At least I noticed this time beforehand :-P).
Aaaaaaaaaand that's my day. That and deal with Babe's few dramas. Gosh, he's become such a boy lately! He's no longer a toddler at all. He's thinking and reasoning and sneaking and rationalizing... It's great! I'm really starting to like him, even when he does piss me off or disappoint me.
:-)
On the plus side, as I told him a couple of times, at least he has good circulation, so with the neosporin and bandages (humongous band-aids) his body should do its job and he'll be better in no time.
Sucks, though, passing this trait on to him as well all the others.
:-(
And on that appetizing note, I'd like to report a really nice couple of days of food. I've made two salads, so far, with at leasst half the greens coming from my beds. The mesclun is going gangbusters, though the romaine(?) is trying to take over by shading everything else to death. I'm not letting it, however. It's too yummy to get away with that.
So yesterday, I made an awesome salad for a potluck, though it is missing something, I just haven't figured out what. It was equal parts fresh mesclun, fully grown romaine and torn up red chard leaves (stems removed), tossed with cucumber, slivers of celery and almonds and crumbled up white stilton with dates and orange (OMG!YUM!). It needs a dressing, though I haven't figured out what, exactly. I'm thinking a yogurt based dressing, though I don't know what I'd season it with. Something subtle and spicy... and maybe middle eastern in flavor, like cumin and coriander. With orange blossom water? Nah, that would be lost.
Anyway, it was good, but not quite perfect. I'll need to play around with it a bite more. Aw shucks.
Tonight, I made madras veggies (onions, garlic, carrots, rutabaga, green beans, broccoli and zucchini) and chicken tikka, without the tikka. Or the grilling/broiling. Basically, it was chicken korma without the coconut. It was super yummy, too.
* 3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted [or a 1-2 teaspoons ground cumin ;-)]
* 3/4 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted
* 2 cups whole-milk yogurt
* 4 garlic cloves, chopped [only four? Hah!]
* 1 (1 1/2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil plus additional for greasing pan
* 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice [the only thing I measured properly]
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
* 1/2 teaspoon garam masala (Indian spice mixture)
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
* 5 pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes [I used four = ~3 lbs)
Preparation
Purée all ingredients except chicken in a blender until spices are well ground. [Common sense tip: blend all the herbs together till smooth then add the yogurt, otherwise the coriander and cumin seeds will remain whole. If you don't have a blender or don't trust it, grind the seeds up with mortar and pestle]
Put chicken in a large bowl, or divide between 2 large sealable plastic bags, and add yogurt mixture, stirring or turning to coat. Marinate chicken, covered and chilled (turning occasionally if using bags), at least 4 hours.
Soak skewers in water 30 minutes. While skewers are soaking, bring chicken to room temperature.
Preheat broiler and brush a broiler pan lightly with oil.
Divide chicken among skewers (about 5 cubes per skewer), leaving an 1/8-inch space between cubes, and arrange about 5 skewers across pan. Broil chicken about 4 inches from heat, turning over once, until browned in spots and just cooked through, 9 to 12 minutes total.
Transfer cooked skewers to a large platter and, if desired, cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Broil remaining chicken in same manner. Remove chicken from skewers and serve warm or at room temperature.
[My prep was putting one bag's worth of chicken and sauce in a pot and cooking stove-top till done. When the chicken was done, I removed it, brought the sauce back to boil and mixed in a bit of corn starch (at least, that's what I think was in that bottle) to thicken it up a tad. Once that was done, poured the sauce over the chicken and served.]
I have a bag of this chicken mixture still marinating in the fridge. Probably I'll break out the grill tomorrow (it's supposed to be 93F tomorrow! EW!) and do a proper tikka treatment, but I'm tempted to add coconut and ground almonds to the sauce and make a(n approximation of a) proper korma. I love chicken korma so.
We'll see. It'll probably depend on how hot the house is. And if I manage to get a refill on the propane...
I also made some date bars, though I overcooked them a bit in the oven. (Fifteen-twenty fresh dates and 2/3 cup unsweetened coconut whomped in the whomper till blended, spread 3/8" thick on cookie sheet and baked in 350F oven however long (fifteen minutes? twelve?) then left to cool in oven another twnety minutes or so.) I need to experiment with them a bit more to figure out how to cook them in the oven (as opposed to the microwave, where I cooked them before) so that they turn out the same. Though, it has occurred to me that maybe the oven is the wrong way to cook them. Maybe they need to be steamed... Don't think so, though. Probably need to reduce the oven temp by fifty to a hundred degrees and only have the heat on for five minutes rather than twelve. Or however long it was. (Such a rigorous scientific method I use, eh?) Then let them set until the oven is cool. Ish.
And all this cooking because I couldn't do laundry (the manganese lining of the city's pipes is breaking down, so as the water company is flushing the pipes, the water gets extra dirty. Again, and again and again. At least I noticed this time beforehand :-P).
Aaaaaaaaaand that's my day. That and deal with Babe's few dramas. Gosh, he's become such a boy lately! He's no longer a toddler at all. He's thinking and reasoning and sneaking and rationalizing... It's great! I'm really starting to like him, even when he does piss me off or disappoint me.
:-)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 06:04 am (UTC)It makes me smile to think that your 'Babe' is all growing up :D
The cooking sounds exhausting (so many different things?) but very yummy. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 02:05 pm (UTC)I've resigned myself to the fact that three hours of every day will go into dinner. I don't mind most of it, although I could happily have someone else wash all the veggies for me. I hate that part.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 02:02 pm (UTC)pear gorgonzola sounds as if it would overpower the stilton. The vinaigrette might work, though...