Dorm cooking so far August 27, 2009

 

As a college freshman, I refuse to submit to the oppression that is a lack of freshly made goods.  Well, so far I have been doing pretty well.  After my schlep of a ton of kitchen tools to my dorm, I began to use our oven.  In a few weeks I’ll employ the term abuse, because I will be cooking up an actual storm–a tempest, if you will, of anti-dining hall food.  On the other hand, Cornell’s dining halls are pretty damn good.  So far I have enjoyed make-your own belgian waffles (Grant, if you are reading this, maybe you should consider planning on going to Cornell, because that’s your bag), many different condiments such as nutella and peanut butter in large tubs, multi-typed cereals with Cornell Dairy’s Chocolate milk, apples from the Cornell orchards, and more.  

But back to my own cooking.  The dorm kitchens are actually fully functional, and my mother will be jealous of the fact that since probably no one has used the ovens here, they are actually the right temperature, as opposed to our oven, which is a wee slow.  Anyway, this is the beginning, but I suppose you can follow to see what kind of other stuff I’m making.  Woot!

The Last Supper August 22, 2009

Before leaving my house for college, I wanted to cook a wonderful meal in honor of the “last” time I would be able to cook in my beautiful kitchen for my family.  I struggled in coming up with the dishes that I would cook that night, but I wanted it, in essence, to be a feast of ultimate deliciousness.  

For the first course, I served bone marrow with parsley salad, as made famous by Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune.  I made fresh homemade bread, sliced it, and toasted it.  The parsley salad had shallots, capers, lemon juice, and olive oil.  I encouraged my family to spread the bone marrow on the toast, top with sel gris, and then the salad.  It was divine.  

In addition to the bone marrow, I put out some pomme frites, which I gluttonously served with hand-whipped butter.  We found that fries dipped in bone marrow is also delectable.

For the main event, I served hand-made papardelle with chanterelle and hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, Pecorino Gineppro, and olive oil.  It was hearty and amazing.  The sides included my own cured sardines, soppresata with pickled onions, and a fennel and orange salad with pecorino and pomegranate.  This was all enjoyed with a nice bottle of Barolo, which was deep enough to pair well with the mushrooms and sausage but dry enough not to overpower the salad and in a way that complemented the oily sardines.

Before dessert, I served a “Palate dirtier” in lieu of a palate cleanser– wedges of Jasper Hills Bayley Hazen Blue cheese with a Pedro Ximenez sherry reduction.  What an interlude that was…

Last of all, I made a balsamic zabaglione with strawberries and blackberries–a recipe my mom once made that enchanted me.  

I will miss cooking at home, but I think that I ended my home cooking career with somewhat of a bang.  At least I tried…

 

My family enjoying their last (for a while at least) meal cooked by me

 

Mom teaching my brother how to extract the roasted bone marrow...

 

Dad enjoying his meal...

 

pasta, salad, sardines, bone marrow

cheese--"Palate Dirtier"

Cooking Like I’ll Never Cook Again August 15, 2009

It’s the final week before I leave for school, and I’m not all that sure that cooking in a dorm will be easy.  Therefore, I’ve staged a coup d’kitchen, and I’ve been cooking like a fiend.  

Since I may not have access to many exotic ingredients or the time to cook extensive dishes in the weeks to come, I’ve been cooking things that are unusual or things that I have never tried before.  For instance, a couple of days ago, I made congee, the popular Asian rice porridge.

This dish was missing from my life for far too many years.  I have never had something so simple yet so comforting.  Almost never.  I used one chicken and some scallions and ginger to make the stock, and then I cooked the rice in the stock.  The only thing I added to the dish was a soft-boiled egg, which I placed atop the congee with shreds of the reserved chicken.  This dish was ethereal, like the best bowl of oatmeal and a delicious chicken dinner and risotto all in one and on steroids!  I served some kimchi alongside, and the rice was the perfect foil for its fieriness.  Just feast your eyes:

Yesterday, I couldn’t draw any inspiration from the recipes I was looking through, so I went to the store to find some exciting ingredients.  Truth be told, I had my mind set on crab or some interesting cut of pork.  I went to the new Fairway near my house, and I swear I have had it with that store.  I asked for some pork belly at the meat counter, and the man helping me brought me pre-packaged tripe and said that they only had beef.  I told him I wanted belly–not stomach–fresh, uncured bacon.  He then told me to look back in the refrigerated bacon section or at the deli.  Really?  What kind of a store has butchers who have no idea what pork belly is?  Well, I was so fed up that I drove to whole foods, where I had better luck and ended up with Niman Ranch pork belly, oysters, corn, and artichokes.  

When I got home, I chopped up some lemon verbena and sweet basil from our garden and rubbed it with some salt and olive oil on the pork belly.  I then baked it in parchment for an hour.  After it had rendered some fat, I opened the parchment and roasted it for another forty minutes.  Meanwhile, I grilled the corn in their husks and then removed the kernels from the cobs.  I also chopped up the artichoke stems.  I sauteed some shallots with the corn and stems and then added a pinch of flour and some cream, lemon juice, cayenne, white wine, and lemon verbena.  I cooked this all down and then added the oysters to poach at the last minute with their liquor.  

For the whole dish, I baked some big gougeres and cut off their tops.  I filled them with the “chowder” and topped it with a piece of the pork belly, which I seared quickly before serving.  I topped the belly with an oyster and then served half an artichoke with some Vermont butter on each plate.  This was a decadent and beautiful dish.

Yum!  I’ve also made a chocolate charlotte and a berry pavlova, in addition to eclairs and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies!  More later!