Shakshuka: Comfort Food
September 6th, 2008 by Michelle | No Comments | Filed in UncategorizedLast year we ate at a newly opened Israeli restaurant and had a wonderful dish of ‘Shakshuka’. It was eggs cooked in a spicy tomato sauce and was quite good. We’ve since made many variations on this dish, it’s quick and easy comfort food if you have some tomato sauce and eggs handy.
We’ve done very untraditional versions, filled with meaty sauces, including pork, and some with simpler and more traditional tomato and spice sauces.
Since tomatoes are in season, we started with a slow cooked tomato sauce made from Early Girl tomatoes and sweet Sungolds:
Into it went two farm fresh eggs from pasture-raised chickens (from TLC Ranch.):
Notice how much the yolks stand up in the sauce and how bright orange they are? We’re lucky to be able to get fresh eggs like this, and we can even visit the chickens and see for ourselves how they are raised (and we have). Check out their food politics blog, Honest Meat.
And here’s a short video showing some of the preparation for the dish:
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.Cantaloupe from the Garden
August 25th, 2008 by Michelle | 2 Comments | Filed in produceWe planted cantaloupe this year and now have a nice crop of ripening melons. The motivation was to use them in smoothies, but they are so sweet and syrupy, they usually don’t make it to the blender. Read the rest of this entry »
Summer Candy: Figs!
August 20th, 2008 by Michelle | No Comments | Filed in produceOne of the many delights of California summer foods is fresh figs. So syrupy sweet, they are like candy.
Our backyard fig trees are still too young to bear much fruit, but Allen Wilson of Wilson farms offers his bounty at the Santa Cruz Farmer’s Market:
Tandoori Experiment 2
August 11th, 2008 by Michelle | 8 Comments | Filed in Ceramic CookerWe had an almost successful first try at using our ceramic cooker as a tandoor oven. We made some changes and tried again.
Recap of issues from the first try
The first attempt resulted in chicken that was unevenly done — the edge pieces were well cooked, but the middle ones were not quite done.
We had to be gentle with the skewers or the meat would slide off the bottom of the skewers.
We fried the gasket in the BGE by using a platesetter that redirected the heat to the gasket area. Read the rest of this entry »
Green Peach Salad
August 2nd, 2008 by Michelle | 1 Comment | Filed in RecipesToo Many Peaches!
We have several fruit trees in the yard, one of them in its third season since planting. It’s produced a bumper crop too large for its small frame to support:
Real Hazelnut Mocha
August 1st, 2008 by Michelle | No Comments | Filed in coffeeWe’re coffee snobs. After tasting expertly (and lightly!) roasted beans, used within 2 weeks of roasting, and pulled as espresso by a barista who knows how to properly extract it, we were ruined for run-of-the-mill coffee. And yes, run-of-the-mill includes the likes of Starbucks and Peets. Thankfully, there are a number of “third wave” coffee shops near us.
Barefoot Coffee is one of those (and the one that introduced us to just how amazing espresso drinks could really be!). Their baristas are an amazing group. One of them is Paul, who shares our interest in local, seasonal, whole foods and experiments with incorporating them into espresso drinks. We happened to be in the shop one day when he was experimenting with hazelnuts. Lucky us! Read the rest of this entry »
A Good Grill Grid Lifter
July 31st, 2008 by Michelle | 1 Comment | Filed in Ceramic Cooker, Gadget ReviewsOne of the accessories we wanted for our Big Green Egg kamado-style grill was a grill lifter, a gadget to remove a too-hot-to-touch grill to get at the charcoal beneath. We looked at the crooked-stick ones sold by barbeque stores and at the clamp-like one by Big Green Egg. The Big Green Egg one was better than the others, but still a bit wobbly in how it held the grill. Some people buy two of them, but that seemed needlessly expensive. Also, the handles are short, putting your hands close to the hot grill.
Then I saw this grid lifter at Amazon. It was cheaper than the Big Green Egg one and Amazon has a great return policy, so I ordered it. It was, as noted in the comments at Amazon, a different model than pictured there. Read the rest of this entry »
Tandoori Marinade
July 30th, 2008 by Ken | No Comments | Filed in RecipesThis run of tandoori marinade was modeled on a vindaloo spice scheme.
The ingredients and approximate quantities are as follows:
- 1 cup whole goat yogurt (plain cow’s milk yogurt is just fine)
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- juice of 1 fresh lime
- 2-3 tablespoon piece of fresh ginger root
- 2-3 tablespoons of garlic cloves
- 3 Dry whole chili pods
- 1-2 tablespoons paprika
- 2 tsp black peppercorns
- 2 tsp whole coriander seeds
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 small cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp black cumin seeds (kala jeera)
- 1 tsp green cardamom seeds
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 3 whole cloves
Big Green Egg as a Tandoor Oven?
July 25th, 2008 by Michelle | 8 Comments | Filed in Ceramic CookerWe decided to try using the Big Green Egg (BGE) as a tandoor oven.
Features of a traditional tandoor
A tandoor is typically a cylindrical clay oven, open on the top. It can be heated by charcoal or gas (in modern versions). It runs at temperatures from 500 to 800 degrees F. Very long skewers of marinated meat are lowered into the oven vertically. Cooking time is quick, usually 8 to 15 minutes. The meat is surrounded on all sides by intense heat which caramelizes the surface, and the quick cooking time minimizes moisture loss. The marinade is not oily enough to drip and cause flames. Read the rest of this entry »