Damn Mandolin

It was two weeks ago Saturday that a lot of things began to play out. First of all, Mari and I were going to try a new dish. Her birthday was just two days prior so, we had a little birthday party. I was going to be making Lobster Risotto. The risotto itself turned out well, but the lobster was disappointingly tough. Later, I e-mailed my chef friend Jeremy Nepple and he said it was probably because I either cooked it too long, or the temperature was too high while it cooked. I give you the recipe down below, but there was so much more to this story.

That same day, I had bought Mari's gift, I found a mandolin slicer. Jeremy had recommended that we get one. He did, however, warn us to be careful. Well, Sunday, the next day, I decided to try out my new Mandolin. I decided I'd fry up some potato chips. At the beginning it was difficult to slice the potatoes using the protective guard. And, of course, I thought that my hand would be far enough away from the slicer itself, that I would be ok putting the potato through without the guard. WRONG! I sliced off a good hunk of my thumb. Oh my God, blood spurted and although I wrapped a towel around it tightly, I couldn't get it to stop bleeding enough to bandage it. So, I got in the car and drove to the emergency room. Since I was driving with one hand, I put pressure on my thumb with the same hand and by pushing it up against my chin. It was as I was driving along that I realized that the towel I was using was the same towel I had used while preparing the lobster. It had a distinctly fishy smell. When I was finally settled down and getting it bandaged, I told the nurse working on me about the towel and the smell. She listened politely...but then a few minutes later, she came around to my side and she said it was a good thing I had told her about the towel, otherwise, she wouldn't know what to think when she smelled that smell. We both enjoyed the joke. So obviously it wasn't so bad that I couldn't share some dirty insinuations.

My thumb is healing quite well now. You can still see that it took no only skin, but also a small piece of muscle as well. And I've faced my demon. I've since used the mandolin successfully. However, I will always give it the respect it deserves. My friend Dennis has called me Julia Child, which of course was a reference Dan Aykroyd's comedic portrayal of Julia Child. (You can watch Dan Aykroyd by clicking on the highlighted name.)

Things seem to have come full circle. I began this blog after watching the movie Julie and Julia, which was in part, about Julia Child.

Well, and here is the Lobster Risotto recipe. I got it from page 184of the Jan/Feb 2011 edition of Cooking Light.

Directions
Bring 4 cups broth and 1.5 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. Add 3 (5-ounce) lobster tails; cover and cook for 4 minutes. Remove lobster from pan; cool for 5 minutes. Remove meat from cooked lobster tails, reserving shells. Chop meat. Place shells in a large zip-top plastic bag. Coarsely crush shells using a meat mallet or heavy skillet. Return crushed shells to the broth mixture. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Strain shell mixture through a sieve over a bowl, reserving broth; discard solids. Return broth mixture to saucepan; keep warm over low heat. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1 cup uncooked Arborio rice to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 cup broth mixture, and cook for 5 minutes or until liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly until each portion is absorbed before adding the next (about 22 minutes total). Remove from heat, and stir in lobster, the reserved 2 tablespoons broth mixture, 2 tablespoons butter, and 3/4 cup frozen green peas. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

Nutrition:
374 calories; 10.7 grams fat; 24.7 grams protein; 44.4 grams carbs; 4.1 grams fiber
Weight Watchers points plus value: 10

La Chiesa II

Tonight, I went on the second of three culinary adventures put on by Arts on Grand and La Chiesa restaurant, both of Spencer.

It was,again, MARVELOUS. Not only is it good food, but I feel as though I'm learning so much. Tonight Chef Jeremy Neppl made a pork loin with an Italian bacon, but the name escapes me. It wasn't prosciutto, but something similar to that. He also made potato gnocchi (a pasta-like dumpling) and Bolognese sauce, a layered potato dish, green beans, and Brussels sprouts. They were all so good, and it was a lot of fun watching him cook. By the way, I know that at some point, I am going to make the gnocchi.

I should have been writing over the last few weeks all that I learned last time. But it's not very interesting reading about how to bread something without breading your fingers in the process. I learned a lot of neat tricks like that. I've also made chicken stock from scratch, blended olive oil and canola oil for some things in the kitchen, etc. They're small things, but significant if you spend any time in the kitchen.

Tonight Jeremy really surprised me. He told me that he read my blog... to be honest I was a bit embarrassed. I felt sort of like a food critic wannabe. I don't feel I know nearly enough about food for that role, but then I got thinking. I'm entirely comfortable with the role as literary critic. Actually, I thrive in that role. And like I tell my students, "critic" does not mean negative. It means to be analytical, interpretive. But then, even with that definition, I don't feel as though I know enough about food to really analyze it or interpret it, but I do feel as though I'm getting there. My palate is strengthening. Now, when I eat something I would have found acceptable in the past, I realize how bad it really is. Hell, take out pizza no longer cuts it for me. So now I find myself in a quandary. I have to cook more even if I'm tired or I don't want to cook in order to be satisfied.

I don't want to be a chef like Jeremy (the hours would kill me). I want to be a good cook and I want to know about all the different foods out there. Here in Northwest Iowa, we have so few opportunities to experience foods from different cultures. Sometimes our only option is to make them ourselves. So Jeremy, if you're reading this. I need to learn more about cooking. Can you point me in the right direction? By the way, the pictures I took of you with my cell phone tonight didn't turn out well, so I borrowed one from your website. And I told my boyfriend that we have to eat at your restaurant SOON. Thank you for everything, and I can't wait until next month.

"Whore's spaghetti"

I haven't been dieting well or even exercising well lately. Frequently, I've been coming home exhausted. I've been trying to at least avoid junk food and eating home made food even if that food isn't necessarily the most dietary of foods. It's been a rough couple of weeks because I've been teaching 4 sections of Composition II how to correctly use NoodleTools, a program that generates works cited pages. I've been doing this in a computer lab, which means I run around hour after hour during the day, but it isn't healthy running around. It's not aerobic. I rush from one side of a room to the other to stop a couple of minutes each place. It's taking its toll on me.

On Friday I spent the day with Mari and Brian, at a state conference between community colleges and the regents (the public state universities). The day was interesting, but long. The upside is that we went down to Newton for the meeting on Thursday. Thursday night we unwound with some drinks and soaking in the hot tub. I haven't been that warm and relaxed in MONTHS!!! I'm definitely going to have to get a whirlpool tub. Those drinks and that soaking was more rejuvenating than sleeping a week straight.

I was so refreshed and the day was so nice today that I took Joey for a walk on our fair-weather route. It was great! I'm hoping to take her again this afternoon.

So, anyway, right now, I'm more interested in exploring cooking more so than dieting. When I came home I found 3 new cooking magazines in the mail box. I had to try one of the recipes today: Spaghetti alla Puttanesca. Not knowing what puttanesca meant, I just did a quick search and learned from Wikipedia that it literally means "whore's style spaghetti." I've been called worse things.

I was intrigued by this recipe because it's made mostly of ingredients that can be kept in the pantry and not in the fridge. In other words, I can keep the ingredients on hand for a long time and when I'm tired or I don't want to go to the store, I can still whip up something that's good rather than going through a fast food drive-through. Also, it has a lot of ingredients with which I've had little to no experience, so I was challenged by it.

I don't know if this recipe is for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. This is a very oily spaghetti. It especially has a lot of olive oil. But there's also anchovies in it, so it also has omega-3 fish oil. The Kalamata olives and capers made it nice and tangy as well. So, if your idea of spaghetti is Chef Boyardee, or Kraft, this may not be for you.

The one ingredient I didn't use was grape tomatoes. I looked at them in the store and they just looked hard and woody. So, instead I used a big can of diced tomatoes. I drained them slightly, but when it called to add the additional spaghetti water, I didn't need to because there was plenty of sauce. Besides, I've read where canned tomatoes are even richer in the healthy antioxident, lycopene, than fresh tomatoes.

I found this recipe on page 91 of the March 2011 edition of Everyday Food.

Ingredients
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/5 cups grape tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed, dranied, and coarsely chopped.
3 anchovy fillets, minced
1/3 cup pitted Kalamata or other brined black olives, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1.5 cups tomato purée (from a 15-ounce can)
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound spaghetti

Preparation
1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add grape tomatoes, capers, anchovies, olives, and garlic and cook until fragrant and tomatoes soften, about 5 minutes. Add tomato purée and season with salt and pepper; cook 2 minutes (sauce will be separated)
2. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta water; drain pasta and add to sauce tossing to combine and adding enough pasta water to create a thin sauce that coats pasta. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately. Serves 6.

Nutrition:
420 calories; 13 grams fat; 12 grams protein; 63 grams carbs; 4 grams fiber. Totals 11 points plus weight watcher's points.

Risotto

Although it's far from being dietary, I wanted to try to make risotto as I learned to make it Sunday night at La Chiesa, and at the same time, I wanted to make the broiled tilapia that I made a couple of weeks ago for Mari again. So, I went ahead and made the two together. The flavors went together very well. And although there aren't a lot of flavorings added to the risotto, it was very tasty.

I thought I knew how to make risotto until Sunday night. There I discovered that I was using the wrong kind of rice. You need to use Arborio, or similar rice in which the starches are on the outside of the grain rather than on the inside where most rice stores the starch. You also need to roast the rice before you add it to liquid. Although I don't have an official recipe, I can give you the general run down without specific amounts.

First, you need to heat a little olive oil and butter together in a skillet. Add finely chopped shallots and Arborio rice. Roast, stirring until the shallots begin to brown. I'd say about 5 minutes will do it. Then add stock about a cup at a time. I made chicken stock last night. That's something else I learned Sunday night. You need to make chicken or veal stock around. You just need to simmer the bones along with some carrots and onions. I also threw in some celery. You can freeze it and have it around as you need it. So, anyway, you keep adding the stock as it cooks away and is absorbed. Test the rice by tasting a grain once in awhile. Once it's done, add Parmesan and salt and pepper.

I really was impressed with how tasty the risotto was. But the tilapia was again really good. :)

La Chiesa

I'm completely reinvigorated. Tonight, I went to the first of 3 cooking schools given by the chef and owner Jeremy Neppl of La Chiesa, a new Italian restaurant in Spencer. I have to admit, I haven't eaten there yet...I'm just going to have to get pushy and insist on going there sometime.

I learned so much tonight. I'm worried I've already forgotten a lot of it. These workshops are a month apart. Tonight we did hors d'oeuvres. Next month we'll do entrees and in March deserts. I especially want to try making some of the different kinds of bruchette we had tonight. I loved the carmelized onion with gorganzola. The carmelized mushrooms with goat cheese was also awesome.

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home tonight. I had to stop myself from buying some of these ingredients spontaneously. I've learned from past experience, I need to have a plan made as far as when and making sure I have all the ingredients at one time before, I start buying things. I've boughten some really expensive ingredients in the past that have gone bad because I wasn't able to get to them in a timely manner.

By the way, if anyone wants poached tuna steak. I think I now know how to do it. :)

Homemade Sushi

Mari and I did it! We made sushi last night. To be more specific, we made California roll last night. It may not have been expertly done, and as you can see in the picture, it was a little sloppy and loose, but we even improved with the second one. I think if we had had enough rice and enough room in our stomachs, we would have done even better in the third one. Mari came up with the key. You really have pack it tight, like a snow ball. We are going to get even more experimental and next time we go to Mankato, we're going to sit at the sushi bar and watch how it's all done.

Despite it being loose, the flavors were great. I do think, however, I need to find a different kind of sushi nori (the seaweed wrapping). This one was really tough to bite through and I frequently felt as if part of it was going down my throat while the rest was still in my mouth. It was an uncomfortable feeling, but still the flavors were great.

I'm tired tonight. For the last two days, I've been taking students down to the library and getting them into the stacks. They really are unfamiliar with how a library works, so I made them answer questions on a worksheet that required they find specific books and answer rather strange and obscure questions. It was actually sort of fun, but as I said tiring. Tomorrow I start in showing them how to look stuff up on databases, which is also strange to them, and even to people my age who didn't grow up with these things. That'll be tiring too, but satisfying. It feels good when you know your students are actually learning something knew...That is, if they show up.

So, I came home tired tonight. It wasn't even 5:00 and I decided to go upstairs and change into my nightgown. The idea was to get my bra off. It was rubbing and irritating me. So, I went upstairs followed of course by Joey. I was about to put my nightgown on, and I saw Joey heading for the stairs with one of my new socks. I wanted to chase after her, but you see, I envision these horrible headlines and they frequently stop me from doing stupid things. For example: "Naked, local English professor falls to her death in home: With a sock in its mouth, her loyal dog remained beside her." Is that weird or does everyone do that?

Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash and Scallion Couscous

This last week has been very busy. I had to wrap up the Christmas break fast track class, and of course, the weather wouldn't let us slip by without disruptions. We had to make up a class, and so, I'm still waiting for final exams and essays to be submitted. In addition, we started the spring semester. I've got 4 sections of Composition II and 2 sections of Composition I. It's going to be a very busy semester. Fortunately, we have a long weekend. We're taking off Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And I'm happy to say that I have NO papers to grade. So, I'm going to try to kick back, relax, and fit in some fun activities.

Sometime, in the next couple of days Mari and I are going to make sushi....or at least California rolls. It wasn't easy, but I found the ingredients I need. When we had it in Mankato, the California roll had an orange roe (fish eggs) on it. Mari said that's actually a LA roll. I really liked that, but couldn't find any. The recipe I found called for black sesame seeds, that's the one thing I couldn't find, but I suspect it's not going to make a major difference on the flavor. And besides, this is our first attempt. I think we'll be lucky if any of it holds together. If this works out, we're going to try different kinds and then, maybe eventually have a sushi party. I'll definitely write about our adventure.

Tonight, I decided to try two new recipes that struck my fancy. They're both on page 80 of the January/February edition of Cooking Light. They are Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash and Scallion Couscous.

The Beef Tagine is very spicy and yet very hearty. I've been meaning to try couscous for a long time, and I'm glad that I finally did. If you haven't tried it before, it's sort of like rice, but small and pearl like. Think small tapioca. It is a great winter food that sticks to your ribs. And despite the fact that it's really quite healthy, the serving size is generous. I'll definitely eat this again. There are a lot of ingredients. Mari, it goes well past your limit of 5, but most of the ingredients are spices, and I had no trouble at all finding them, except the beef. The recipe calls for a shoulder roast. I had to settle for a rump roast, which worked well, except it was a bit tougher than I would have liked. I probably should have simmered it a lot longer than the recipe calls for.

This dish is worth it if for no other reason than to experience the aroma as you cook the spice-coated beef. It is heavenly, and it makes you feel as if you've been transported to somewhere exotic like Marrakesh.

I also screwed up. I was supposed to toss the beef in the spices, which I did, but I forgot to include the ground ginger. I realized this after I added the squash. So, I went ahead and added the ginger to the whole dish. I have no idea if that affected the taste or not. I guess I won't know until I make it again.

Ingredients
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (1-pound) beef shoulder roast cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 shallots, quartered
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
3 cups (1-inch)cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 pound)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add beef; toss well to coat.
2. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef and shallots; cook 4 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in broth and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes. Add squash; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until squash is tender. Sprinkle with cilantro. Yield: 4 serving (serving size: 1.5 cups)

Nutrition
Calories 283; Fat 9.5 grams; Protein 25.6 grams; Carbs 25.7 grams; Fiber 4.8 grams.
10 Weight Watcher's plus points

Scallion Couscous

Bring 3/4 cup fat-free, lower sodium chicken broth and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Gradually stir in 1 cup uncooked couscous. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork. Stir in 1/3 cup chopped green onions. Yield: 4 servings

Nutrition
Calories 169; Fat 0.3 grams; Sodium 80 mg.
4 Weight Watcher's plus points