Cookery – Page 8 – Growing Up Savvy

Published July 28, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Wanderlust & Salatim

I could easily picture myself sitting close to the surf in Cape Cod sipping a chilled Sauvignon Blanc or enjoying a leisurely tapas crawl in Barcelona. Alas, that’s all I can do at this point: picture! A five-week old infant hardly makes for a great travel companion especially paired with a rambunctious toddler, so while our wanderlust is at an all-time high, we remain home and are scratching our traveling itch through cooking.

I often plan a menu for the weekend and the week on Thursday afternoon, figure out a shopping list and shop on Friday and cook over the weekend. Most of the time, I am happy to make ready substitutions on the go while at the store if I see something that looks good. That was the case with lobster tails at Whole Foods on Friday and so I decided to take a chance on them having never cooked the crustacean at home before. We steamed them for just five minutes and served alongside an Israeli cous-cous salad with herbs. The herbs were whatever I found in my garden—basil, mint, scallion, parsley.

Since time is a precious commodity and the weather is too nice to stay home and labor all day at the stove, I went for a lean pork loin that took all of 5 minutes to marinade and another 15 to cook. I marinaded the loin while Evan cooked it off and made a sauce with the drippings.

I added some oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies into the weekend mix and had quite the helper, too.Here’s Sophia “reading” the ingredients on a bag that used to house raisins … before they became part of an Israeli-style bulgur salad.

Cookery Hubby Cooks

Published July 22, 2014 by Nadya

A Mother’s Olympic Sport

Successful athletes are dedicated to their sport. They eat, sleep and breathe their craft adhering to the strictest regiments. I am not a professional athlete and I don’t love the gym, though I have gone there when it was a dire necessity—before my wedding. I not patient either, but I do have one good quality—persevering and pushing ahead when I don’t want to do something such as … nursing on demand at all hours of the day and night.

Breastfeeding, you see, is like a sport. In order to succeed at it, you have to have dedication, perseverance and adhere to a strict regimen of rest and diet. A mother’s diet can significantly impact her child’s well-being and that, in turn, can impact your overall happiness. For example, some babies are not tolerant of dairy, while others of sugar. Besides being tolerant, you need to make sure you rest and eat enough to actually produce enough milk for your baby. Certain foods aid lactation and so, like an Olympic athlete adheres to a strict diet, nursing mothers need to adhere to guidelines too. Oatmeal and nuts are among the foods that are said to aid lactation and so in order to keep myself energized and Eliza fed and less cranky, I now stock an endless supply of home-made granola.

It is absolutely delicious packed with dried cranberries, cherries, almonds and pecans. I had an amazing helper assisting me in whipping up my granola, too. Now that she made it, she loves snacking on it. It is a win-win deal.

Cookery Flavors Moments

Published July 21, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: A Spot of Tea For Two

Stop!

Did you know that the blackberry season has finally arrived? There is something magical about picking your own fruits and vegetables and when you throw in a few farm animals and a llama into the mix, well, the pull to go to the farm becomes irresistible. Sophia was so excited to go to the farm that she rushed through breakfast and barely let us finish ours before dragging myself, Evan, Eliza and my parents to Poolsville, Maryland where we went blackberry fishing. When I say we, I really mean Baba and Deda, Evan and Sophia (after she fed the goats and looked at the chickens and pigs, of course). I wish I had pictures of our time there but manning little Eliza was keeping my hands plenty busy. After picking well over ten pounds of blackberries and feeding the animals—again—we finally headed home.

We decided to share our pickings with my parents and my sister and eat our portion out of hand. The fruit is just so ripe, so perfect that I don’t see any need to add extra sugar and cook with it. Speaking of not cooking with fruit; I am finally able to eat moldy, unpasteurized, and stinky cheeses again—now that I am no longer pregnant. I don’t think you can understand my irrational love for these unctuous, luscious morsels of… goodness. I also don’t understand why it took me a month to realize and remember that they need to be added to my shopping list. Worry not, once I did, a Gorgonzola Dolce made it on the list and so did figs for this simple crostini with fresh fig and the gorgonzola atop toasted sourdough. mmm… try it for yourself, there is no recipe but you just put a bit of cheese, top with a bit of fig and you can also sprinkle with honey. Serve with a crisp white wine and a midday snack.

We didn’t just snack on crostini all weekend long. We benefitted from Baba and Deda’s culinary delights but managed to add our own such as this home-spun Cioppino with fennel and cod. The secret to the rich stock was potatoes and anchovies. I don’t follow a recipe per se, just a set of principles such as using vermouth to deglaze the shallots and fennel, adding anchovies to the olive oil and cooking the fish very little at the very end.

I also added a home-made tomato soup from Sprouted Kitchen and it won high praise from the diners. I suppose when you add a toast with melted, fresh mozzarella on top, almost anything will win high praise :-).

And saving the last for best … I got my hands untied for a little bit and it was glorious. Even though Eliza is not my first baby, I still learn plenty from those who’ve done this long before me and for much longer than I have.

This … this right here was simply the best. Sophia and my mom having “tea for two”. If you look carefully, you’ll notice they even decorated their table with a flower in a vase. Attention to details.

Perfection. I just wish my parents lived closer and we could visit them and the rest of our family more often. Then, we wouldn’t miss on fun events like our cousin’s 8th birthday bash :(.

Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors Hubby Cooks Life

Published July 15, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Nice and Easy

It wouldn’t have been a nice and easy weekend if my Mother-In-Law (MIL) hadn’t offered to come and visit us for 22 hours. Yes, I counted and I was savoring every one of those and wished there were more. This would have been the first weekend we were left to our own devices with two children or 2×2 as I like to call it. The 2×2 situation is no joke—it is infinitely more difficult than having just one child.

The key to surviving and even enjoying the chaos is keeping your older child occupied with new and fun activities. My MIL is great at that and here is Sophia enjoying some painting. I try to pay attention at how she organizes Sophia’s activities and learn so that I can hopefully reproduce. I am sure valiant attempts lack the finesse with which Evan’s mom manages her time with a toddler.

Anticipating a 2×2 weekend, I’d designed an easy menu consisting of a new chicken wing recipe paired with boiled potatoes dressed with dill, sour cream and garlic.

The potato recipe is a Russian oldie but goodie. We continued our chicken themed cooking with Green Goddess Chicken served with basmati rice and a side of Dandelion greens Evan picked up at the grocery story. I am sure going to stop writing “something green for a vegetable” in his shopping list because he can get quite creative with his choices. I was hoping he’d get peas or broccoli and he comes home with Dandelion greens. I am not sure I’ve ever had them before and we’ve certainly never cooked them until Saturday. Since he chose these weeds, he got the privilege of cooking them and I wasn’t disappointed with the results.

You can pretty much bet that anything will taste great when cooked with soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Perhaps I’ll throw down a cooking challenge Evan’s way to acquire a stinging nettle next time and make a traditional Ukrainian borscht with it?!

All cooking aside, we were able to enjoy being out of the house. Eliza is just three weeks old and my cabin fever is at an all-time high. Shortly after my MIL headed home (sigh), we headed out to our first post-Eliza soiree—a birthday party for our friends’ little girl. We really had a great time having visited with our friends and Sophia enjoyed playing with other kids. For her, visiting with so many little kids is quite a luxury since she doesn’t attend nursery school yet. We came home yesterday with a cranky Eliza and a tired but thrilled Sophia. As for ourselves, the company of other adults can do wonders for one’s cabin fever and spirits. Seeing all those reasonably relaxed parents with two or more children running around gave me great hope that I too one day shall manage as well as they have learned to.

Cookery Flavors Hubby Cooks Life

Published July 7, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: We’re Back

Can you believe it is already past the 4th of July? No? Well, neither can I. Time flies especially at times like today, when I bid a somewhat sad goodbye to my parents, after a long weekend that seemed too short. I wish time stood still or I had just a little more of it with them. On the other hand, I wish time would fly by and I could finally bid diapers and bottles a cheery adieu. I can’t have it all, so I’ll settle for whatever time I am afforded with those whom I love most and a great celebration—whatever the reason.

We’ve been loved on by our families with attention and delectable edibles so much that we’ve both missed being in the kitchen. My parents provided us just that when they visited and took the girls off our hands. I can’t really get used to saying it … the girlS. Admittedly, as I am still the sole food supply for Eliza, Evan did more cooking but I contributed in selecting the recipes and making some sides and desserts. July, as you should know, is the national ice cream month and so we have home-made vanilla ice cream and a lovely berry crostata.

I also continued to slowly make headway into Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook and made this amazing Chermoula Eggplant.

It was simply spectacular and very easy to make. While I focused on all things sweet and vegetarian, Evan made rockfish simmered in dashi finished with a Chinese hot oil/herb dressing.

He also made korean BBQ from a Cooks Illustrated recipe I discovered while perusing their magazines that we have from when we used to subscribe. It was delicious and I’ll post a slightly updated recipe shortly.

Cookery Dessert Flavors Hubby Cooks Life Moments

Published June 30, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Hugs, Kisses and Delicious Food

The weekend was here at last. Funny how I still look forward to the weekend even though I am on leave. I sometimes wonder if I will loose perspective by the end of my 12 week vacation and every day will be the weekend at that point. I suppose having Evan at home and visits from our family make the weekend exceptional. Maternity leave is certainly not a vacation, though it is incredibly rewarding!

As expected, our families came to visit and meet the new addition bringing with them able hands to play with Sophia and delicious dishes for us to enjoy. As most parents know, cooking when you’ve just welcomed a new addition can be difficult and we haven’t dabbled into much cooking since Eliza’s birth. Evan did however wing an amazing beef recipe that we had two different ways over the last week and felt it was good enough to share. It is a hands off recipe that can be enjoyed in a tortilla with fixings in a Tex-Mex sort of way and also with simple Marinara sauce and pasta in an Italian style. The recipe is here and here’s how we enjoyed it:

… and while the beef was marinating …

Cookery Flavors Hubby Cooks Life

Published June 18, 2014 by Nadya

Things are Nuts Around Here

There is nothing like the vibrancy of summer to kickstart my desire to get into the kitchen and turn out something delicious. I’ve been on quite the baking binge lately including loaves, brownies, sour cherry slab pie and now this walnut-pecan coffee cake.

Thank goodness we’ve had visitors so that they can help out with consumption or else I fear I would bake and cook faster than we can consume and my svelte figure would surely suffer. 🙂 I’ve taken a liking to reading cookbooks. There are wonderful ones out there that are not packed with just recipes but personal stories and perspectives that highlight the rationale behind the author’s culinary style. David Lebovitz and Yottam Ottolenghi both do a wonderful job of luring the reader into their books. All that reading and the amazing pictures in their cookbooks has now resulted in a queue of things I’ll be cooking including roasted banana ice cream and fattoush.

Looks like I am not the only busy bee at our house …

Dessert Life

Published June 16, 2014 by Nadya

Weekending: Jubilee

At last, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The humidity stayed away and we really enjoyed being in the country. As if insatiable with summer and what it has to offer, I hightailed to the farm on Saturday morning to pick tart cherries. The season has just started but if I know anything, it is that you got to show up early or not at all. I took my dad on a father/daughter excursion for help and also as an early Father’s Day treat to myself. I don’t remember the last time we spent time just the two of us and I couldn’t think of a better time to restart the counter.

You see, my father has many wonderful traits, but one of them, he comes by naturally: he’s fairly tall. We weren’t as serious about picking as some of the others braving the 9 am farm crush. I could see a slight disappointment in my father’s eyes as he eyed the competition armed with ladders, but we found a few trees that were yielding Jubilee Cherries which are a slightly sweeter, larger tart cherry. You had to go a lot deeper into the grove to seek out this variety but we, and, unsurprisingly a whole group of Russians found them at the same time. The cherries were scrumptious, so juicy and tender that we found it difficult to leave the grove but finally decided it was time to head out when the scales tipped past the ten pound mark. I feared what Evan and my mom would say about the sheer magnitude of our harvest as it had to be used rather quickly.

I knew that we could always be generous and share them with my sister whose absolute favorite food is tart cherry vareniki. Sharing would still leave me with quite a bit and sure, we can turn into jam, preserves, conserves or something of the likes. You can even make fruit punch with them. But I wanted them in a baked dish and hand pies or pierogies seemed like a lot of bother. After some searching, I decided that we had to go big and so made a large, sour cherry slab pie. Mmm, so good. My dad and I picked the cherries, my mom pitted the cherries, I made the heavenly pie crust and assembled with the help of my dad. Unsurprisingly, for a sweet tooth anyway, he never turns down an invitation to help in the kitchen when someone is cooking something sweet.

It was heavenly — tart and sweet, meaty and flaky and just everything that you think summer and summer desserts should be. Thankfully, I froze a batch of cherries for one more pie just like this and I am sure they won’t stay in my freezer too much longer. There aren’t too many other culinary stories to share with you with this weekend because in addition to visiting with us and playing with Sophia, my parents brought us dinner and lunch for the next few days. For once, we’re grateful for the break and are enjoying some of our favorites like cold borscht.

Speaking of playing, and play they did. In the sandbox and in the garden, outside in the front yard and in the back yard. Sophia planted new seeds and watered them too. Happiness is seeing your child involved in take care of her demesne and sharing that with your family.

Cookery Dessert Flavors Life

Published June 12, 2014 by Nadya

Mid-Week Comfort Fix

Fortunately, Evan and I are fairly interchangeable around the house. We can both do laundry, clean and cook pretty much anything with the exception of grilling in my case and baking in Evan’s. Though, I must admit that a while ago, while waiting to start his job here in Maryland, he did bake me chocolate chip cookies that were heavenly and hot out of the oven the minute I walked in the door from work. I did, if only for a few moments, consider convincing him to be a stay-at-home-husband.

This past weekend, I bought short ribs at the grocery store because quite frankly, if we eat any more chicken, I fear we will grow feathers. They were a safe choice as we could slow braise them and turn them into perfect tortilla stuffing or turn into a scrumptious stew. Since I shopped and sort of planned the menu, Evan executed. We also benefitted from baby arugula from my parents’ garden. Pairing the short ribs with mashed potatoes laden with lots and lots of butter though thankfully, not as much as Joel Robuchon recommends was heavenly. We did balance the whole meal out with a peppery argula salad.

For anyone who is interested in my, not Evan’s, braising recipe, it goes something like this:

Heat the oven to 300*F. Sear bone-in short ribs on all sides in a large, cast iron pot. This should take about 10-12 minutes. Remove the ribs and slowly sauté 1-2 sliced onions (I like more) in the pot until soft and translucent. Add 2 tablespoons of good quality tomato paste and 2 anchovies if you have them. Cook the mixture until the tomato paste is toasted and the anchovies have disintegrated. Add 28 oz of canned, whole tomatoes that have been hand-crushed and bring to a simmer. Gently nestle the meat into the pot and add enough chicken stock/water to cover the meat 3/4 of the way. Add a few sprigs of fresh thyme, bay leaf and cover. Bake for 3 hours until the meat is tender and falling off the bone. Enjoy!

Cookery Hubby Cooks

Published June 11, 2014 by Nadya