Sep 01 10 by Nicole
Lately, we’ve been completely obsessed with Jamie at Home on the Cooking Channel. We have recorded every single episode and we get so hungry watching what he makes. His cooking style falls right in line with the kind of food we love.
When we saw his recipe for lamb kebabs, we knew immediately that we had to make them.
He makes little “sausages” out of lamb and then rolls them in flatbreads with herbs and red onions and yogurt. We kept the same flavor profiles when we made it, but just changed it up a little. When we use recipes nowadays, we pretty much just use them to get inspiration, but we never follow them exactly.
Although it looks like there are a lot of components, they are really simple. For the lamb, we mixed ground lamb, pistachios, sumac, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper and grilled them on our cast-iron griddle. We also made two “salad” components–one with thinly sliced red onion and goat’s milk yogurt and one with a bunch of herbs dressed in olive oil and lemon juice. We also made some flatbreads specked with fennel seeds to wrap everything up in. Overall, I really liked these, even though I’m not crazy for lamb. I would probably make these with beef or pork next time, but the flavors and textures were delicious.
Aug 31 10 by Nicole
I’ve liked coffee since high school, back when I used to consume six cups in a night to stay up while doing algebra or would meet up with friends at Starbucks to consume massive amounts of what I’d now refer to as “Crappucino”. But I’m still not one of those people who *has* to have their morning coffee. I’ll go without it for weeks, months even, and it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
But, that has definitely changed since I discovered the gloriousness that is iced coffee. Specifically, cold-brewed iced coffee. I wish I could drink the stuff 24-7. Iced coffee is refreshing and mellow and smooth and complex–whether you drink it with milk & sugar or just black.
A lot of places make iced coffee by using day-old coffee and serving it over ice (tastes like stale burntness) or by taking warm coffee and pouring it over ice (tastes like watered down mud) and either way, it tastes terrible. However, the process of “cold brew” changes all of this. Cold-brewing coffee is not only insanely delicious, but it’s also insanely easy.
Darius likes to drink his plain–no milk, no sugar–but I usually add a splash of simple syrup (using a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water) and a splash of cream.
Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee
It’s important to note that this is “coffee concentrate” basically, so you’re supposed to water it down before you use it or else it would be ridiculously strong.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. of coffee (we use “Shady Lane” from Owl Tree Roasting here in Austin), freshly ground
1 quart of water (4 cups)
1. Add the coffee grounds to a large pitcher.
2. Add the water and give it all a stir to make sure that all of the coffee is wet.
3. Leave at room temperature for 12-18 hours.
4. Strain the mixture through a sieve (and add a paper towel or fine cheesecloth) to separate the liquid from the grounds.
5. Store the liquid in a closed container in your fridge until ready to use.
6. To serve, pour concentrate in a glass over ice. Add water or milk to taste. If you prefer sweetened coffee, add some simple syrup (don’t try to use plain sugar, as it won’t dissolve).
Aug 29 10 by Nicole
We don’t eat pasta very often anymore, although dishes like this make me want to cook it a lot more than the once every two months or so that we cook pasta now.
We didn’t have any dinner plans one day last week, but we also didn’t feel like eating out or ordering takeout. We decided instead just to see what we had in the pantry and fridge and just try to use it up. We had purchased pancetta from Salt and Time that weekend and we also had a package of linguine in the pantry, so we decided to make a spin-off of pasta carbonara.
Carbonara is a classic Italian dish consisting of just a few ingredients–pasta, cheese, eggs, and cured pork (guanciale or pancetta). Essentially the raw eggs are added to the cooked pasta and the heat from the pasta mixes with the cheese and egg and forms a creamy sauce. The crispy pork is added back and voila–a super decadent pasta in just a few minutes.
We took some liberties with the classic carbonara, just using what we had around. We crisped up the pancetta while the linguine cooked. While waiting for the pasta to finish, we mixed together a couple of eggs, some raw-milk cheddar, some ricotta, and salt and pepper. As soon as the pasta was done, we drained it and then added the egg mixture and tossed with tongs until the sauce coagulated and coated the pasta. We tossed on a few leaves of basil just before plating.
We served it with a salad of simple mixed greens, dressing in a vinaigrette of olive oil, balsamic dressing, and a bit of smoked pimento sauce (also from Salt and Time).
As long as you take care to have just a reasonably-sized portion of pasta and eat plenty of salad on the side, this makes for a balanced, healthy, and delicious meal.
