Smorgasbord

I've been cooking, but not writing, so here is some catch-up (not ketchup).

I am not sure I have ever had sorrel soup before, let alone made it, which seemed incentive enough to try. We had some crossed wires, though, and ended up with not nearly enough sorrel for a decent sized pot. Fortunately for me, there were only two of us. The sorrel cooked quickly to almost nothing, and we ended up with barely two cups. I'm not sure I would make this soup again. It was very strong. To accompany it, I fixed a pot of penne pasta, to which I added roasted cauliflower and chopped walnuts. I also made a mistake here -- I wasn't thinking when I was marketing and bought the house brand of Parmesan, which is not nearly as flavorful as the type that is properly made and aged. All in all, this was a very pretty meal -- and not much more.

One of the better meals I made, and very simple, was grouper. I prepared the sauce in advance by skinning a tomato and adding capers, balsamic, and herbs. This was an excellent, pungent sauce and very easy to make. I cooked the fish on the stove top, with lots of butter, then ladled the topping over it after it had finished cooking. For a side dish, I again turned to the penne, mixing in three types of mushrooms. Oh my gosh. I have to make this one again.

I was itching to do something with hamburgers. I had read the best way is to grind your own meat in a food processor, but Darien gave me a Look, so I backed off. Instead, I just mixed in to the patties some Dijon mustard with cognac and chives. I also read that the meat should not be too lean; the fat enhances the flavor as it grills and helps to prevent the burgers from drying out. As a side dish, I made a bow tie pasta salad with grilled asparagus and red peppers. Both of these dishes turned out well. I can't say as much for the pear dessert I prepared. I simmered the pears in sugar and butter. They were supposed to caramelize, but they cooked a lot faster than I anticipated and the mixture burned. I placed them on puff pastry and topped with whipped cream and sour cream -- which sounds odd, but actually worked. Some of the Speckled Bird got in on the food action, so we had entertainment as well.

My latest effort was a berry pie. This is berry season, and we have been getting bushels from our community share. Antonia came over and directed, while I more or less implemented. Tart cherries, along with both red and black raspberries, was the call of the day. Antonia let them sit in a sugar and port sauce while I made the crust. I followed Julia Child's instruction to get my fingers into the dough. It was like making mud pies. The result was not pretty, but tasty. We drained the berries and boiled the juice down to pour over the pie after it came out of the oven. The pie baked for a full hour and a half. I have to say, I'm sorry I had to share this one. It was berry, berry good.

Out of the frying pan

I had been thinking for some time about trying my hand at pizza. I wanted to make my own dough, and Antonia had talked about cooking it on the grill, so I decided to give it a shot.

Because I can't seem to approach any cooking task with simplicity in mind, I elected to make a dough with herbs in it. The recipe I found called for herbes de Provence. I had no idea what they were, so I did some quick research and started to mix up a batch from what I could find in the spice cabinet. Then I noticed that Darien already had a jar of the herbs she had bought at the market. Oh. Next step, mince some garlic, saute it with the herbs, and prepare to add to the dough.

The dough turned out to be an issue. It called for bread flour (which I had to purchase) and cornmeal, and for mixing in a food processor. The sugar and yeast mixture seemed to work well, but in mixing everything together, the dough seemed too sticky and glutinous. I ended up adding more flour than I think I should have, which ended up being a theme for the evening. Just as the dough was forming into a ball like it was supposed to, the Cuisinart froze. This was going to be an expensive pizza.

I kneaded the dough ball a bit and left to rise. Meanwhile, I started on the toppings. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I put together my own, basing it around roasted tomatoes brushed with oil and herbs, a fennel/garlic/onion saute, and barbecued shrimp, planning to top everything with goat cheese. What I neglected was to adjust the size of the recipes appropriately, so I ended up with several times as much as was sufficient. Antonia helped out by consuming vast quantities of the shrimp before dinner.

I made a Dijon based dressing (red wine vinegar, shallots, garlic, thyme, olive oil), while Antonia put together the romaine salad with roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, and salami, proudly cut matchstick style.

The dough rose nicely and I began rolling out the pies. I had to use a lot of flour to keep things from sticking, and I think I could have rolled them all thinner. I stacked them up as I finished, just as the recipe called for, but this proved to be a problem later. When I was grilling one set of pies, the others that were sitting began to stick together. I had to do emergency surgery with a bag of flour while standing at the grill, trying not to let the others burn. It was not a pretty sight.

I put everything together and popped the pies in the oven to melt the cheese. In spite of the stress, and the rather dilapidated look of the pizza, it actually didn't taste all that bad. And it didn't end up costing all that much either -- I just found out that the food processor was not permanently damaged. Whew.