suzy and the dish worth eating

i digressed yesterday, i know. i was supposed to tell you about the fabled dish worth eating, that came from Nava Atlas' Vegetarian 5 Ingredient Gourmet.

i should tell you right from the start that there was a glitch. only one!, but still... and despite that, it still turned out yummy! yummy even as leftovers!

and here, with no more ado, it is:

Warm Potato Salad with Goat Cheese
(isn't it pretty?)

2 to 2 1/2 lbs tiny new potatoes or 6 medium red-skinned potatoes, scrubbed
1/2 c vinaigrette, preferably balsamic (this is where the glitch happened)
4 to 6 oz mixed baby greens
4 oz crumbled goat cheese, such as Montrachet

-bake or microwave potatoes until done but still firm (i boiled them for about 12 min)
-cut potatoes into large dice
-combine the potatoes with the vinaigrette in a mixing bowl and stir gently (we're getting closer to the glitch). let stand for about 10 minutes.
-divide the greens among 4 salad plates or shallow bowls. drain off any excess vinaigrette from the potatoes in a small container and drizzle it over the greens.
-divide the potatoes among the salad plates, placing them atop the greens.
-top each serving with goat cheese and serve.

now, as usual, this is not exactly what happened. i got up to the second part, happily poured my half cup of red wine vinegar over the potatoes, and started talking to H about what i was doing. it was only a few minutes later that i realized that, yes, i had poured VINEGAR over the potatoes, NOT vinaigrette.

... damn. so i did not let them stand 10 minutes, it was probably more like 5, and then i drained off the vinegar to use on the salad. my heart in my throat, i ate a potato.

it was definitely vinegary, but actually, we like vinegar! and because i didn't let it sit too long, it wasn't overwhelming. intense yes, but not overwhelming.

the next bit wasn't so much a glitch as a revision. i was only serving 2. so i did what it said, then combined the goat cheese with the potatoes in a container and put that in the fridge, keeping the rest of the greens separate. my reasoning was that the greens would get soggy if everything was together, and then be impossible to separate, and there's nothing i hate more than soggy greens.

this turned out to be great in the end, because the next morning H didn't feel like making breakfast, and while i was surveying the fridge for potential i thought, hmmm, those potatoes with the goat cheese from last night almost look like home-fries...

and voila! some olive oil in a pan and some intense scraping later (some of the goat cheese stuck to the pan, but the scrapings turned out to be DELICIOUS eaten from the end of the spatula) we had vinegar and goat cheese home-fries that were a fabulous, albeit intense, breakfast.

so! that is the story of how my faith was restored in this cookbook. next time, though, i will get/make myself some vinaigrette...

suzy makes risotto on a tuesday, part 2

one of these days, someone is going to come along and say, "hey suzy, you know all those recipes that just didn't quite work out? the ones you refer to as 'edible but not that yummy'? yeah, well it's because you didn't follow the directions," and then walk away.

but until that happens, i can't seem to resist the urge to adapt. what does this have to do with baked risotto? well, i'll tell you.

the recipe (down below, by the way, maybe you all will have better luck with it) calls for four sessions of 15 minute baking, interspersed with stirring. at the third stirring, you're supposed to add more water and then pop it back into the oven for the last 15. well ...

let me interject at this point that i was dutifully following directions, letter for letter, up to this point. but like any cook, i cannot resist taste-testing at various points throughout the recipe. so i taste the risotto after i've added the water. and it seems to me, that the rice is now what the book refers to as "creamy". or at least, i couldn't imagine that the texture needs to be any softer than what it was at that point.

so i forego the final 15 minutes and add my vegetables. into a bowl, hey presto!, it's risotto.

except ... it's like the spaghetti carbonara. something tells me that this just isn't quite right. either that, or i apparently don't like risotto.

the rice is certainly "creamy", it's just that everything else around it is ... well, gloopy is really the word that comes to mind. sticky, gummy ... when i eat a spoonful of it, it reminds me of oatmeal, which can't be right.

now, i can't imagine that leaving it in the oven for another 15 minutes would have done anything other than make it mushy. but who knows.

but there is good news! i do not blame the cookbook! why not? because i have finally produced a dish worth eating out of it!

what dish, you ask? that's for me to post when i'm not late to work, and for you to read when you're bored at work.

in the meantime, if you want to try this out despite my, errm, glowing recommendation, here it is:

Baked Risotto, courtesy of Nava Atlas

1 1/2 c Arborio rice
2 15-oz cans vegetable stock
2 garlic cloves, very finely minced
about 1 1/2 c fresh vegetable of your choice (i used mushrooms and green and yellow peppers)
grated fresh Parmesan cheese for topping

-preheat the oven to 375
-combine the rice with the stock, 1 c water, and the garlic in a 2 qt casserole.
-cover and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes
-at the third stirring, stir in 1 c water
-when done, the rice should have a tender and creamy texture
-stir in the vegetables, and let the risotto stand for 5 minutes before serving. pass around the parmesan cheese for topping.

suzy meets nigel

thank god for toast, by nigel slater. as much as i love ruth and calvin, it all makes me feel just a teensy bit inadequate. i'm still not sure what moules mariniere are, even though i could just look it up and they have to have been mentioned at least four times in each foodie book i've read thus far. and when i attempted spaghetti carbonara, i wasn't terribly impressed. H (new shorthand for husband) wolfed it all down, but i was left feeling that i probably had done something wrong; what i made certainly can't be the dish that puts calvin trillin on the warpath round thanksgiving.

toast, on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air. nigel reminds us that food isn't only good because it tastes good. food can be good because of the memories we have of it, or the absurd tastes we develop (he rhapsodizes about candies that always taste vaguely stale, no matter how fresh) for no good reason, or simple because we decide it is good.

it's nice to think that, if there is an almighty food critic out there watching my efforts, the glee with which we eat my attempts at cookery may make up for the pseudo-successes and outright failures. perhaps good intentions count too -- if so, then i'm way ahead in the game.

plus, the frankness of this book is unbelievable. very few people can manage the tell-all style without becoming sordid. i'm not sure slater doesn't dip into it a bit, but he does it with a matter-of-fact style that bypasses voyeurism and sleaze and takes you into the realm of childhood memory, something rarely stained with any awareness of impropriety. that got terribly wordy, but what i mean is: this book is great.

suzy is ruth reichl's new best friend

the title of an email in my inbox this afternoon:

Ruth Reichl invites you to preview the new newsletter from the editors of Gourmet!

some might argue that this in no way indicates that i am her new best friend, but that's fine. they probably didn't get the email, they're just jealous.

but i feel that, for you all, i should share. you too can become her new best friend! go to this link and give them your email address. ah, the joys of gourmet newsletters... bursting with recipes too complicated for me to make, full of ingredients too obscure for me to afford, and reviewing dishes i will probably never taste in this life.

got to love vicarious living!

suzy falls in love

i dreamed about mushrooms last night.

soft, white, pillowy button mushrooms replaced my pillow and then dared me to eat them. big meaty portabellas wafted through the air, borne on their own aroma. shiitake mushrooms danced in the corner, bowed and then scurried off. varietals that i must have made up, because those are the only types of mushrooms i can identify, whirled round me in the finest display of fungal acrobatics ever seen in dreamland.

i blame ruth reichl.

ever since reading Comfort Me with Apples, i have become obsessed with her recipe for mushroom soup (which i promise to post later, right now i don't have access to the book). i have made it twice. the first time i discovered that i was hesitant to follow it to the letter--that much half and half is more likely to prevent me from enoying something than enriching the experience for me. so i put a little more broth in, much less half and half, and stirred with a worried frown. i did not let it boil, and followed all of her instructions to the letter.

except for the one about not putting the mushrooms in until the foam from the butter has dispersed. how long does that take? what heat does that take? i almost burned the butter before i gave up on that step.

it didn't matter. it was amazing.

the second time i made it, i followed my little alterations. but then, to my shame, i let it boil. just a little, and just very briefly, and my defense is that i was finishing the book at the same time, but still.

it didn't matter. it is amazing.

i have never dreamed of food before, much less gone to bed smelling it (hours after i had last touched the stuff), woken up craving it, and thinking about it in between.

this food is, for me, what i imagine crack is for other people.

i am in love...

suzy gets a self-esteem boost

so i've been completely taken over by the need to read food writing -- calvin trillin, ruth reichl, ed levine... that is, i would read some ed levine if only the library had it. i am severely handicapped, in fact, by the library system. so far i've managed to unearth Garlic and Sapphires, Comfort Me with Apples, Feeding a Yen, and The Tummy Trilogy, but that seems to have exhausted the possibilities.

of course, part of the problem is that i have no idea who to look up in the catalog. i love my library, it has been very good to me. i just don't know where to look (or at least, that is what i will assume until further notice).

hopefully some diligent online research will tell me who else i should read. it will be hard to find someone to match the insights of reichl and the down-to-earth humor of trillin, but it can't hurt to try.

but i digress. last night, as we sipped our (cheap but tasty) wine and watched Leaving Las Vegas (cinematography: excellent; direction: pretty good; acting: great except for elizabeth shue), my husband turned to me and said:

you know, if someone had told me that getting married would mean eating at a four star restaurant every night, i would have done it a lot sooner. i hope you know how much i love your cooking--i feel like maybe i don't express that.

i am, quite possibly, the happiest woman alive. despite the stomach virus and interminable mediocre dishes of cous cous, i am appreciated and making some progress with my cookery.

the recipes that provoked this outpouring of support? tune in next time...

suzy says, take that!

hah! and i quote:

The new young reporter, on the other hand, was jus the opposite; Amanda Hesser was terrifyingly sweet. She was pale, pretty, petite, but she seemed so frighteningly ambitious that we all kept our distance. -- Garlic and Sapphires, pg 208

needles to say, i've finished the book. it's wonderful and amazing and i can't wait to buy it and make every single recipe in it. go, i tell you, go to the library and check it out. you will wish you had sooner.

suzy meets ruth

i am only sixty pages into Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires, and i had to stop to post this. it's wonderful. it's what i wanted out of Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte and didn't get. her prose is clear, her anecdotes are entertaining and fit within the wider context of the essay, her characters and relationships are fleshed out... blah blah technical jargon blah.

i guess the bottom line is, when i read this book, i get that much closer to what it felt like to be Ruth in Le Cirque, or to eat the soba noodles at Honmura An, both things i will never do in real life. thank you, ruth. i am ashamed that it took me this long to read, and i can't wait to finish this one and read the others!

suzy meets amanda

i really, really, really wanted to like Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte. i got it on the recommendation of adam (the amazing amateur gourmet), i liked the cover, i really liked the fact that there were illustrations before every chapter (i'm going to start the More Books Should Be Illustrated movement one of these days), and i loved the fact that there was an index at the end that encompassed recipes and ingredients.

as far as the recipes go, i must admit that i only tried one--the macaroni and cheese recipe. the white sauce was more white chunks of butter-clotted flour than sauce, and even though i followed the recipe verbatim it just didn't seem like there was enough cheese in it. but that's not amanda's fault, and for the most part i liked what i saw of the recipes. her insistence on ground pepper and grains of paradise (whatever the hell those are) is a little annoying, but that i can forgive.

what i can't forgive, however, is how flat the chapters are. i was expecting some lively dialogue, some interesting insights, and hopefully some entertaining stories about food and relationships. what i got instead were essays that are hardly cohesive, with random anecdotes barely woven together with random descriptions of whatever food she happened to be eating. even the anecdotes specifically about eating in restaurants with famous foodies are interspersed with amanda's distracting and lackluster internal monologue. the last chapter was the most frustrating--she attempts to sum up the trials, tribulations, and successes of dating mr. latte, but because it wasn't backed up in the previous chapters, it felt artificial.

overwhelmingly flat, is all i can really think of to describe her writing. of course, i haven't read her columns, and maybe this isn't the best introduction to her style. i live in that hope. in any case, i'll certainly be trying some of the recipes, and will stick to the illustrations from now on.