The biggest cabbage in the world! & Cabbage & Chourizo Soup

On Sunday I went to our favorite local farm to get some goodies and came home with the biggest cabbage I’d ever seen. The nice man at the farm stand saw me ogling it in the field and offered Dave a knife to go cut it down and take it home. (I would never offer Dave a knife. I know what happens. I’ve seen it. I’ve been to the emergency room with him).

When I got home I tried to take a picture of the cabbage next to the dog, next to a six-pack of beer etc. to show just how enormous it was, but they are all very blurry – I apologize.

After taking the pictures for this blog post  - because how could I not write about a cabbage that big – I realized just how big the cabbage was and I seriously started to worry about what I was going to do with all that cabbage. I thought I’d do a take on Portuguese Kale Soup. This is my version of it with Cabbage.

Cabbage & Chourizo Soup

Half a gianormous head of cabbage – - or something more reasonable – shredded.

5 or 6 carrots – chopped

onion – chopped

celery – chopped

4 pieces of chourizo, skin taken off, sliced into little bite-sized discs

Chicken or Vegetable Stock

Water

S&P

Brown the chourizo in a big pot. Add onions, carrots, celery – sweat them out a bit. Add cabbage to pot. Some S&P to taste. Add Stock and water 1:1 to almost cover the cabbage. Simmer until the cabbage wilts down. Serve with a nice crusty bread for dunking.

trying this again + cole slaw

I love writing and I love love food; I’ve tried this once before and got distracted – mostly by going back to work after my daughter was born. So Food Porn is back – - I aim to talk about food, cooking, recipes and the occasional strong opinion on something else entirely.

Today? Cole Slaw. I made a panko-crusted haddock dish, roasted tomatoes with garlic and oregano (from my garden) and an easy, fabulous cole slaw I thought I’d share the recipe for.

For you cole slaw haters out there – just give this one a chance – unless you are allergic to cabbage or something awful like that.

Also, for those of you who don’t know me, I don’t really measure so ingredient amounts are approximate and if you are trying this recipe at home are subject to common sense.

Fabulous Mayo-Free Summer Cole Slaw

Cabbage, shredded or chopped coarsely, however you like it – I used 2 small heads, one savoy and one purple.

Carrots –  3 or 4, again shredded or chopped, however lazy you are.

scapes – 1 beautiful curlicue ; if you don’t know scapes – please go to you local farmer’s market and get some asap – fore you cannot. If you don’t have scapes I supp you could use chives  or scallions – but they are just not the same.

1 tsp or tbsp of sugar – I use sugar in the raw, you can use whatever you have on hand

Vinegar – your favorite vinegar will do. I chose champagne vinegar for this because it’s a little sweeter.

Oil – I like a light oil like grapeseed,  but whatever you have on hand will be fine. Bacon grease would work if you are hard-core.

S&P

Mix the shredded or chopped veg in a big bowl. Dissolve sugar with a few good tbsps of vinegar, some S & P. Wisk in a few glugs of oil until it emulsifies. Pour dressing over veg. Mix together. Lett hang for a bit. Eat.

This one tastes even better the next day –  so make extra.

giant carrots

giant carrots

some giant carrots from the farmer’s market. a friend of mine made a carrot pie at christmas time. it tasted like pumpkin pie.

roasted chicken soup

soup. salad.

this was superb. roasted chicken soup and spinach salad.

Hot little number.

Large pizzas were meant to be smothered in toppings like mushroom, pepperoni, sausage, onion, peppers and meatballs.

Small pizzas, little ones, were meant for experimenting.

I type as I enjoy a little spinach and pineapple pizza from a local pizzeria.

Scrumptious.

It’s getting hot in here . . .

I am thoroughly enjoying Bill Buford’s Heat, a fantastic memoir of his time in the kitchen of Mario Batali’s Babbo and his journey to learn about cooking as a profession.

You can imagine my excitement to find that both Buford and I share something in common. In talking about the Food Network’s newer programming, Buford writes that they “tended to have intimate-seeming camera close-ups of foods, as though objects of sexual satisfaction. The skin-flick feel was reinforced by a range of heightened effects, especially amplified by sounds of frying, snapping, crunching, chewing, swallowing.” Right on, Bill!

Crispy, Sticky, Dirty Dirty Chicken . . .

Flipping through the channels, I found myself drooling at Jamie Oliver’s cooking show. He was making Crispy and Sticky Chicken Thighs with Squashed New Potatoes and Tomatoes. I was all of a sudden thankful that my husband had gifted me his newest book, Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life.

This dish was insane! and, very simple to make.

My husband loves me more because I made it.

Look at the deliciousness. I called several friends immediately after making this to tell them how fabulous I was for having made it.

And then I offered to make it for them. No one took me up on my offer. Maybe they think I am a food snob. Or crazy. They might very well be right.

food porn: my rendition of Jamie Oliver's Crispy, Sticky Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Tomatoes

But I think anyone can see – this was worth a trip to dinner at my house.

Herbed Tilapia. (Drool. Drool.)

I must warn you, I have no porno-esque pictures of this dish, I am simply very proud of it and hope my words will do it justice.

I was inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe for Roasted white fish with Leeks.

requires:
Tilapia fillets
Sprigs of rosemary and thyme
lemon
EVOO
panko
spinach
arugula
tangelo

I mashed the herbs together with some salt, then added juice of half a lemon and slowly whisked in some EVOO. I spread the marinade over the tilapia fillets on one side, put that side down in a hot sauté pan that can be transferred to a broiler; then added the rest of the marinade over the fish in the pan. I let the fish mostly cook through on one side then flipped to the second side. I added a mound of panko and a little squeeze of lemon to the top of each fillet then let the fish finish and the panko brown in the broiler.

Served on top of a mound of spinach and arugula, dressed with S&P and the juice of half a tangelo and the fleshy chunks of the other half.

Very light. Very delicious. Very satisfying.

Food Porn

food porn: veggie mac & cheese with roast tomatoes and peppers

I love food porn -seductively shot photos and video of food being prepared, being cooked and being presented. I find myself mindlessly watching the Food Porn Network shows, drooling. 

On numerous occasions has watching Jamie Oliver prompted me to run out to the local farms or farmers markets to get need produce to mimic his creations.

This has also giving me cause to turn this blog into a celebration of food porn . . .

food porn: baked acorn squash with apples, pork & beef

This was one of my winter favorites, Baked, Stuffed Acorn Squash. I bought all the vegetables from a local farm. I stuffed the squash with carrots, onions, apples, quinoa, brown rice, ground pork and ground sirloin. I made the stuffing while I pre-roasted the squash, then stuffed it and baked it for about an hour more. Unbelievably delicious.

stuffed acorn squash

mmmm, still steaming hot . . .

so sexy . . .

Here’s another recent attempt . . . Veggie mac & cheese

After I had my daughter, my mother made me dinners often so I wouldn’t have to cook. She made me her version or a Food Porn Network recipe by Giada DeLaurentiis. It was great, but my husband found it a bit watery. When I wanted to make it again, I turned it into a baked macaroni and cheese dish. I cut the peppers and lined the bottom of a baking dish with them. Then I spread the stuffing, with extra zucchini and no tomato in the mix, over the top of the peppers. (I did add a little tomato sauce to the stuffing mixture to keep it moist). Then I added peeled cherry tomatoes and a few handfuls of Romano cheese on the top and baked it all for approximately 45 minutes. Voila!

mmmmmmmmm

delicious.

you know you want some . . .

All that said, I will now call this blog Food Porn.

Luna: a story of the second grade

I’m not sure exactly how it came up, but my husband and i have just spent an hour looking for pictures of a book I remember loving when i was in the second grade: Luna: the story of a moth by Robert McClung.

I hadn’t thought about this in more than twenty years, and I’m not sure why the memories were so easily accessible tonight, but I remember going to the bookcase every week and grabbing this book during our reading time. I’d always grab it, just so that no one else would. I’d get it and four or five new books and go back to my desk. I’d read it first everytime.

I have a vague recollection of the artwork. I remember it as a sort of insect-coming-of-age story. Despite google’s best efforts, all I am able to find is a picture of the cover of the 1957 edition and a B&W drawing of the inside cover. I remember trying to mimick the McClung’s luna moth renderings on my homemade paper shopping bag bookcovers.

Now i must decide if Clover needs this book too.