Veal and Museums

As promised, and really not too difficult.

Roasted Veal with Porcini
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 1/4 ounces dried porcini (about 1 1/3 cups)
2 (1 1/3-inch-thick) veal rib chops
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 garlic clove, smashed
1 thyme sprig
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
2/3 cup crème fraîche
1/2 tablespoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon chopped tarragon

Steps
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Put dried mushrooms in boiling water and let soak until needed in the recipe. Take veal at room temperature and pat dry and season with salt and pepper.

Heat an ovenproof 12-inch heavy skillet (not nonstick) over medium-high heat until hot. Add oil and heat until smoking, then add veal chops and sear underside well, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn chops over and sear 1 minute.

Add butter, garlic, and thyme to skillet. Transfer skillet to oven and cook, until an instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into center of chop registers 130 to 135°F for medium-rare, 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer chops to a plate to rest. Discard garlic and thyme, keeping juices and fat in skillet, and return to burner over medium-high heat. (Handle will be very hot.) Drain mushrooms from hot water and add to skillet and sauté 1 minute. Add shallot and sauté 1 minute.

Stir in crème fraîche, swirling to incorporate, and boil until porcini are lightly coated and liquid is slightly thickened. Stir in chives and tarragon and season with salt and pepper. Serve chops smothered with sauce.

Serve!


Truth be told I got this off from Gourmet. But it was delicious and quite easy. I also made gluten free cream cheese brownies (Quick note: I use better batter gluten free flour). This made me a touch happy, not insanely happy but a touch.

The recipe is....
Ingredients
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup better batter flour
8 ounces cream cheese, well softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Steps:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan.

Heat butter and chocolate in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, whisking occasionally, just until melted. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and a pinch of salt until well combined. Whisk in flour until just combined and spread in baking pan.

Whisk together cheesecake batter ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Dollop over brownie batter, then swirl in with a knife or spatula.

Bake until edges are slightly puffed and center is just set, about 35 minutes.

Serve!

Anyways, my weekend was interesting, I explored and I cried. I explored the Natural History Museum, the Union Square Farmers Market, a cooking store in Union Square, and Bark for Hot Dogs in Brooklyn. Bark is over rated, no special hot dogs in my opinion. Then I cried about a situation I fear will never change. So I will be cooking happy food for the next month, or two, or three, or 100. There is really no limit to how long it will last. So expect a long series of happy food. Today I had pot-roast, it isn't the happiest of food. It just sits and doesn't brighten your taste buds, it just comforts them.

Maybe after all of this I will write a cook book, on foods to make you happy. Who knows..?!?!

Sausages and Mexican

Since my last post, I have three followers. Possibly this growth will become exponential….. or it will become stagnant. Either way I will consider it a great, HUGE success.

Today I am writing illegally at work. Hopefully my success will not become too big, that I will be found out….we can only hope. But I know I finished my last post with the sausage question and well I cannot boast of having much of a triumph. The sausage was terrible. It was dried out and yuck. But there were several factors helping it become this way. All I am going to say is that my father and a microwave were possibly involved.... In my father’s defense though, he was a great help and the sausage smelled a bit funny, and we were merely guessing how to cook it. We bought the sausage at Whole Foods(which has been terrible as of late) and I have decided to place my official blame on them, and last week I bought corn on the cob there and as I was eating I noticed that it was moving….with WORMS! Terrible shock, stupid organic food.

Last night, I ate out, which was a treat. I went out with my friend Paras for mexican, and then my sister ended up coming, and then my Dad was in the neighborhood and felt a bit famished as well. So it was a lovely improvised family meal. The restaurant was in Hell’s Kitchen, and it was cheap. The name was Tulcingo Restaurant, quite a divine find. The irony of the restaurant was as I was explaining to my sister my great discovery, she told me that she goes their all the time... I suppose great minds think alike.

Tonight, my options are wide open for a meal plan. So I can give no hints as to what dinner will be. Also, I have not put any recipes in the blog, so in my next blog I will add a recipe or two. I am thinking though, that I will make something that makes me happy. Hopefully this happy recipe will cheer up everyone!

Halibut and butter

Well, I have come to realize that anything is made delicious with butter and a touch of salt. Maybe if you met a person with a bad day you could just lather them up with butter then throw some salt on them for good measure. It might not ease their burdens, but it would add a touch of humor to their life. Today I could have used this very humor. I woke up in a terrible mood, broke my glasses, had great anxiety, and somehow managed to get out the door to catch my bus. Needless to say, had I lathered myself in butter and a touch of salt, my morning might have gone a bit different. Luckily, while on the bus people could tell by my very dark glasses, that I was a girl who might need space.

But onto food, something a hint more interesting. I am a good chicken cooker and a good pork tenderloin cooker, but I am trying to branch out. Sunday I made pork loin(I feel like this is like the big papa pork tenderloin, but that might be an awkward name for a loin). It might have had a pulse, the benefit of rare meat is that you can eat the part that is perfect that day and then the parts that were a little more pink/pulsing you can just fry up to perfection for lunch the next day. But back to the fish, I am trying to cook it as often as possible. Whenever I cook fish I feel light afterwards, and you can honestly just cook it in lemon, garlic, and butter with a touch of salt(of course!) and it will always taste pretty good. At least with white fish this rule applies anyways.

This post wasn't much about fish, but c'est la vie. Tomorrow I will try to make grilled sausage, and try to figure out just how long it really takes to cook 'em.

New to the city

Two weeks ago, I packed all of my items into a car, and I moved to New Jersey to live with my lovely father. I graduated college in May, my possesions are a full closet and a soon to be full kitchen. I work in Manhattan and thus I am a commuter. My mode of transportation is the ferry, or the bus. The commute is 50 minutes up to an hour and a half. My weeks are measured by these commutes, only one more till the weekend. In September, I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. This disease changed my standard cooking routines into science experience, utter failures, and an increase in all fruits and vegetables. It is during my daily commute that I come up with my daily concoctions and each night is trial and error in the kitchen. I suppose this is making food back into my friend, instead of my arch nemesis. My goal for the blog is to discover easy gluten free recipes and to share them. Enjoy!