Magazines to the rescue

I knew I wanted to cook last night, but I didn’t know what.

I checked the freezer for meats and took a huge bag o’ chicken wings and a tray of stewing beef out to thaw.

Now what?

I headed out to the library and thought I might see some inspirational ingredients on the way.  Lucky for me, I got Food & Wine‘s February issue and Fine Cooking‘s Feb/Mar issue that filled in the blanks.

From Food & Wine, I made Classic Hot Wings (recipe below) which Grace Parisi recommends you flour first, bake on high (500 degrees) and then finish with melted butter and hot sauce.

My fella came home from the office starving, so I don’t know whether it was his crazy hunger or whether they were that good, but he kept saying how much he liked them.

While the wings were baking, I made Food & Wine‘s Celery-and-Celery-Root Salad (which would’ve been much easier if I’d used my mandoline instead of my Chinese cleaver – what was I thinking?).  What a beautiful looking salad and really, just the simplest of ingredients.

My guy does not like the look of celery root before it’s peeled, so while he’ll eat it, he’s not too crazy about it.  This of course, I didn’t know the extent of until he came home and said, “Yeah, not for me.” After spending about 20 minutes whacking the beast and all the other ingredients (my celery root came out not like matchsticks, but like wide watercolour brushes – hey, you do what you can with what you have), I was disheartened, especially because now I had to eat a honkin’ bowl of root veg on my own.

Luckily, one of my closest pals dropped by in between meetings  today and I made her an ad hoc lunch of sliced chicken breast and a side of the celery salad.  She loved it so much, I gave her the recipe!  Phew.  Now there’s only a tub the size of a beer cooler left …

The main course I made was thanks to Fine Cooking. 

Spicy Red Lentil Dal with Winter Vegetables & Lamb might sound heavy for June, but it’s been cold and rainy on and off, so it felt like a good night for something hearty.

I replaced the red lentils with green and substituted beef for the lamb.  Otherwise, I followed the recipe as written.

Spicy comfort food with a modern edge.  It was absolutely perfect and exactly what we needed on a chilly night.

I am so grateful to these magazines.  They made what started out to be a panicked cry of “What will we have for dinner?”, into  a wonderful, memorable, nourishing night.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 500°. Line a large baking sheet with foil and spray with vegetable oil. In a bowl, mix the flour with the salt. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Spread the chicken on the baking sheet in a single layer and spray with vegetable oil. Roast the chicken for 45 minutes, turning once or twice, until browned and crispy. In a bowl, toss the chicken wings with the hot sauce and butter; serve.

The follow up

The lamb the other night?  Amazing.

Broiled with olive oil, real lemon juice, fresh rosemary, chopped garlic, salt and pepper, it was soft and moist, with a crusty, charred top.  Oh my.

I served it with baked organic sweet potatoes (the brightest orange I’ve ever seen) and chopped collard greens with lemon and garlic.

So, it’s going to be hard to top tonight, I’m afraid.  I mean, how do you follow something like that?  With something that was so simple and yet so good?  It’s like a comedian who has to follow Jerry Seinfeld – good luck!

Well, I’m going to damn well try.

Tonight I’m making a beef curry.  Indian curry with pakoras to start, jasmine rice and assorted veg on the side, and parathas to sop up the sauce.

And if it’s not perfect, that’s okay.  There’s always next time.

It’s only noon, but already I’m swooning at just the mere thought of it.

Uh oh, I think I just drooled on my keyboard.

On the lamb

After many, many, many nights of eating out for book clubs, events and restaurant reviews, I am back at home cooking tonight.

And I’m making lamb.

I know I should be making something Mexican to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but I’m going to delay our celebrations until the weekend when I can really savour the process of slow cooking things and make some more time-consuming dishes.

So tonight I’m making lamb and I’m excited!  I am heading out after finishing work to pick up some ingredients.

Tell me what your favourite way of preparing lamb is?  Do you often buy the same cut?

I’ll let you know how it turns out.  In the meantime, I’m just going to enjoy thinking about it…

No boil noodles – lazy or #$@! brilliant?

I made a wonderfully aromatic lamb lasagna last night with fresh noodles that you don’t have to boil first.

The result was incredible – soft noodles that weren’t at all mushy and have that toothy give that makes lasagna stand out from other pasta dishes.

I know that there will be some of you who think that not having to boil them first makes it an inauthentic dish, but then is buying and boiling them any better?  Perhaps your version of authentic is to make everything from scratch.

Tell me what you think.

In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy my lasagna.  It’s always better the next day anyway…

Oh Anthony

Every couple of months, we watch a bunch of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations.

The problem we’re having is the same we had with watching The Sopranos for all those seasons – despite just having had dinner, we’re hungry all over again.

It varies, depending on where he’s traveling.  The episode in Jamaica?  Not so bad.  Last night’s episode in Provence?  Nearly killed us.

And we had just finished a big, whopping Easter dinner that I lovingly prepared throughout the afternoon: velvety celeriac soup, broiled lamb with savory and freshly ground Chinese 5-spices, new potatoes, carrots and green beans.

Sigh.  We snacked our way through the entire episode, though.

Damn you, Anthony!  Just kidding.  We love watching you.  And hey, we’re faring way better than we did during The Soprano years.  The amount of pasta we consumed?

You don’t want to know…