Quarantine Cooking: Grilling

I am not especially fond of green bell peppers, but if they're any other color like red, yellow, or orange, sign me up.  And while they're delicious raw, they're even tastier when they've been roasted or grilled.  I had bought a dollar bag at my favorite produce store and decided to grill hamburgers last night just so I could also grill my peppers.

I usually grill hamburgers on a charcoal grill, but I had bought Wagyu ground beef at Costco, excited to try it.  However, when I grilled my Wagyu beef burgers, they tasted too much like raw charcoal and had also shrunk down half in size.  It's predominantly fat, and the grease dripped onto the hot coals, flaring and charring the meat. And so for this last package of Wagyu ground beef, I decided to cook it on top of aluminum foil (a cast iron grill pan would have taken too long to heat).

Wow was I right about the meat grease.  It spilled out of the foil and dripped into the coals and really blackened my peppers.

I think the peppers are beautiful, but I hope they don't also have a raw charcoal taste.  I rinsed and peeled them under running cold water before refrigerating them.  My hamburgers didn't have those beautiful grill marks, but I was hopeful that they would taste less like lighter fluid.

I had made a Napa coleslaw that had been chilling in the fridge, and set out my burger-making bar.  Success.  The hamburgers were tasty and still medium raw and that takes care of the Wagyu beef which I won't be purchasing again.  However, I'm running dangerously low on mayonnaise.  First world household problem.

Quarantine Cooking: A Mezze Lunch

In my quest to not waste food, I turned my grilled eggplant from another night into baba ghanoush with the addition of tahini, Meyer lemons and curly parsley into the Vita blender.

I pulsed with tiny additions of water, adjusting for texture because I wanted a coarse ground and salting to taste,

I've been inspired by late, watching David Chang's Ugly Delicious, and I was lucky to have a lot of the herbs already in my spice drawer and condiments from Dean's Produce:  Aleppo pepper, smoked Spanish paprika, Zhoug made of mint and cilantro, homemade hummus, homemade tzatziki, Greek feta, leftover Greek salad, and Spanish olive oil.

I chopped and added a bit more green bell pepper, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and Persian cucumbers and tossed the salad with red wine vinegar and olive oil.  

I topped the Greek salad with chunks of Greek feta (though French feta is my favorite of late)and sprinkled it with Dukkah, scooped hummus and tzatziki on the plate, sprinkling Aleppo pepper and chopped mint. I remembered to add the yellow bell peppers I had grilled the other night with the eggplant into the salad.

I had other pickles in my fridge and thought why not?  In go Tennessee hot pickled okra and artichoke hearts.

I then added a scoop of baba ghanous and topped it with the green Zhoug and topped the hummus with the red Shatta.  And remembered to dot with a two or three Kalamata olives.

You also gotta have a starch to scoop all these savory dollops, and this was the last of pita bread I bought at the Middle Eastern market that I wrapped in foil to go with instructions to heat it in a 400 degree oven for a few minutes

Next I embellished with more curly parsley and plastic wrapped and left it out on the counter for the platter to get to room temperature to heighten the flavors.  Oh!  I had forgotten, and so I had to lift the plastic and drizzle Spanish olive oil all over the individual mezze board for my neighbor, Cecilia.

And then it was time for me to partake of my own personal vegetarian mezze, and even without an alcoholic accompaniment because I supposed I could've partook of a glass of Chardonnay during this quarantine, I relished and rhapsodized over the taste and flavors of Lebanese and Syrian and Greek and Arabic and Egyptian cuisine.  Cecilia loved it too, and claimed the baba ghanoush was the best she ever tasted--and so I made her another mezze the next week.

Quilting: Pin Basted & Stitched in the Ditch

I spent my weekend socially isolating by stitching my Campfire Quilt's ditches....it's done and of course not perfect (and I did pull out a few seams because of too much puckering and folding) which is OKAY.  And then put away the sewing machine and the quilt in order to hunker over my laptop for work.  It's now Friday, and so I'll be pulling this baby out to quilt further.  I'm hoping it'll look better with more quilting and then washing and drying where the crinkling will hopefully hide my not so perfect quilting.

Quarantine Life: Chile Rellenos

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and I had remembered to buy a corned beef, carrots, and potatoes plus the husband brought home Napa cabbage from our garden.  However, I had grilled pasilla peppers earlier in the week for chile rellenos I had intended to cook a couple weeks ago.  I hate for food to go bad, and so I wanted to cook and eat it ASAP.  First things first though:  a Moscow Mule because I had no tequila for a margarita though I did have limes and ginger beer.

I had also eaten a few nights ago at a local Mexican restaurant my favorite coleslaw, which I've been itching to re-create.  Only I had Napa cabbage instead of green cabbage.  That's okay.  I made a dressing of a 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, the juice of a whole lime, a teaspoon of sugar, a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and half of a jalapeno pepper, finely minced, and a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  I then chopped two scallions and 1/3 of the head of my Napa cabbage and added them to the dressing, folding and combining with a spatula to coat the cabbage with the dressing and to leach out its water to drain off later.

I had taken a chub of beef chorizo from my freezer and fried it up in a pan--no need to oil it because there's so much fat--to also stuff into my pasilla chiles.  However, it seemed a shame to throw away the oil because it's so flavorful, and so I saved it in a jar to use in sofrito.  

 

I also had leftover black beans and enchilada sauce in my fridge on which to embed and embellish my chille rellenos and because I hate to waste food.

I guess my dish is not how traditional chile rellenos are served but are rather my one-dish version of a chile rellenos casserole that's a bit more labor intensive.  I had grated queso on hand and stuffed it along with the chorizo into my already grilled pasilla peppers which I then sealed up with toothpicks.

My stuffed peppers were then ready to be battered and fried.  Next I separated the whites and yolks of two eggs and beat the whites with an electric hand blender.

Two eggs did not seem enough for 4 chiles though I could probably have stretched it.  And so I added another egg and then put the yolks into the frothy whites.

After I folded and combined the yolks into the whites, my batter was ready for the chile peppers.  But first get your cast iron pan hot enough so that a half inch of oil is shimmering and starting to smoke.

 This is also a good time to get your oven preheated.

Next plunge the stuffed peppers into the egg batter until coated all over.

And then slide the battered pepper into the hot oil.

 Fry until golden on all sides, which is tricky.  Some cooks will take a big spoon and ladle the hot oil over the battered pepper in order to cook it further and turn it over with the spoon or a spatula.

When the peppers were golden, I spooned them into the casserole dish of black beans and enchilada sauce and drizzled more enchilada sauce on top of them and sprinkled more cheese on top before sliding into a 325 degree oven for 40 minutes.

While my chile rellenos were heating more, I continued folding the chopped Napa cabbage into the spicy dressing along with some chopped cilantro.  Before storing the leftover Mexican slaw, I drained it of the water that collected in the bowl.

My chile rellenos casserole may not be pretty, but it was pretty delicious though a bit spicy (the hubs needed to add sour cream to temper the fiery bite).

I did like how it looked plated though it was clumsy and a bit messy.  The slaw was pretty tasty too.

I'm pretty sure I've blogged before about cooking chile rellenos, and that's okay.  I like to change up my rotation even just a little bit, and the black beans were not the usual for this dish.  And since I'm out of pinto beans, but do have more black beans in my pantry, I'm pondering making mollettes next with frijoles negros because I've got telera rolls too in my bread drawer.

Quarantine Life: Campfire Quilt

Yesterday was Day 1 or Tuesday, March 17 of a county order to isolate, and I already was practicing that social distance by spending most of the weekend sewing.  Here's the finished quilt top.  I thought I would have it already pin basted for stitching in the ditch and then hand quilting, but nope.

I messaged the picture of the finished top to my nephew and asked what color for the backing his wife wanted.  Pink, not Yellow.  Luckily, I had in my stash a bolt of Kona Baby Pink Cotton.

I adore this quilt pattern and will totally sew it again with the Curry fabric above, but with Kona Quilt Cotton Fabric Solids instead. I did plot out colors if I were to shop at the Joann's down the street from where I live: Bone, Snow, Lavender or Wisteria, Baby Pink, Punch, Coral (Made in America Cotton Fabric), Berry.

Ceramics: A Portrait of a Future Pet

Years ago, I made this wall plaque, not knowing I would have a dog who is her spitting image named Sadie.

Sadie is not a teacup chihuahua, but she was pretty small and scrawny when we first got her at only four and a half pounds.  We still wonder and speculate how long she had been homeless before we became hers.  And dogs are the best reason for getting up in the morning.  Nothing better on a weekend morning than cuddling a dog while lounging in bed.  My husband then picks her up, puts a sweater on her to go out to pee after which she wants nothing more than to scamper back to bed.

And then as I'm getting up, she too is ready to join me and face the world.

Waste Not, Want Not: Denver Potatoes

My second week without a Ceramics Saturday.  I needed comfort and also to not waste food.  A few years ago, I read An Everlasting Meal:  Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler.  Her prose and prosaic approach to cooking stuck with me. Her tips and techniques and having a husband who doesn't like to go out to restaurants made me fall in love with home cooking.  I also had a fond food memory of Sunday breakfasts with a boyfriend, and we continued those companionable meals even after we broke up.  I forget the name of the waterfront restaurant of those breakfasts in Benicia, but I remember my half order of Denver Hash Browns (and really they were home fries) with a poached egg.  

Yay for leftovers.  I had sliced and fried a small bag of Yukon gold potatoes for a roast chicken dinner last week. Half a green bell pepper from a Greek salad. Grated cheddar, Swiss and jack from macaroni and cheese making. Red onion. Eggs. A package of Irish bacon discovered at the Grocery Outlet.

I chopped the onion and green bell pepper and Irish bacon and fried them in my a mini cast iron frying pan with a bit of vegetable oil.  I then nuked the potatoes and then plopped them in the pan, stirring and flipping all the ingredients so the potatoes were on the bottom for browning and vegetables on top in order not to burn. I sprinkled the cheese on top and continued cooking the potatoes to melt the cheese and then started to fry an egg in another pan--poached eggs though I love 'em--is not in my skill set.

I can't believe I used to hate eggs as a kid and a young adult, and now I love eggs whether sunny side up or poached or hard boiled.  My Denver Potatoes were delicious and satisfying.

Quilting: Campfire or a modern log cabin

I've become a grandaunt to a newborn named Isla Rae, and her mother expresses a preference for pale pink and rose pink in a baby quilt.  I had pulled Kona cotton bolts of melon and baby pink, as well pink fabrics from other lines.  And then I remembered a kit I bought from Craftsy comprised of Boundless solid fabrics with a similar color palette but punched up with yellow and purple brown.  My ceramic studio is on hiatus for the next two Saturdays, and so I spent that first Saturday shopping for silkscreen medium and brown clay.  And then came home and pulled the fabrics out.  I'd been reading the instructions and felt ready to cut the strips.  On Sunday, I finally started stitching.  I said I would stop after stitching the melon strips, but aaargh I discovered a mistake and ripped out the seam of the fig stripe on the right of this block and then trimmed down the melon strip on top to align with the other horizontal strips and the vertical and horizontal porcelain strips on the right side.

I'm trying to take my time on this quilt, so I don't have to fix any more time-consuming mistakes like my Sunday evening to produce what you see below.  And I had time enough this morning to pin a fig strip to the bottom to stitch on to this medallion tonight.