One Pan Pumpkin

Last night we watched the movie Big Night. So you would think that after seeing that I would have spent this evening making risotto, timpani, bolognese, and listening to Louis Prima and smoking vast amounts of cigarettes. At least you would think that if you had seen the movie. If you have not seen the movie then it is unlikely that any of that would have occurred to you.

Instead, I devoted this chilly October evening to yet some more fall cooking.



To start I made a kale salad with sliced apple and pistachios. For the dressing I tossed it in a little cider vinegar, olive oil, and celery salt.



For the main course I browned some garlic cloves and shallots then tossed in some wedges of sugar pumpkin and roasted them in the oven for about thirty minutes. Then I seared some bone-in chicken breast and tossed in some fresh sage leaves and finished it all together.

With the fall comes the employment of my favorite cooking technique. Well, it's not really a technique, more of a philosophy. A lazy philosophy. And that is using only one pan. I love nothing more than cooking dinner using only one pan. It's like sport to me. The best part of this sport is that the winner is always me. Particularly when it comes time to do the dishes.

Now with culinary inspiration from Jamaica and Big Night swimming around in my head I am looking forward to doing a few theme nights soon. Our Canadian Thanksgiving festivities are postponed this year as we were in Jamaica on the actual holiday so it may have to wait until after the late celebration.

For now, please enjoy some hastily thrown together dinners that loosely celebrate the season of fall!

We're Off Island Time

Yesterday morning we woke up in Jamaica after a night of eating grilled lobster, curried goat, and ackee. We swam out to the bar (which opens at 6:00 AM) and ordered drinks. If one is lead to believe that all of Jamaica is like the resort we are at (if one is a fool) then one would assume there are not any clocks in Jamaica. We became fond of saying that we were "on island time." This became my go to answer for anything. "Hey, Nate, why did you burn down my house?" "Hey, we're on island time."

See, you can't argue with that.

This morning we woke up in a much more dreary New York after a night of eating terrible airport pretzels and a 1:00 AM batch of ravioli before passing out.

In chatting with a few of the Jamaican chefs at the resort I got some pretty good tips for some Jamaican cooking that I'm greatly looking forward to putting into practice. However, having had four days of all you can eat/drink hospitality it is nice to return home and make something a little lighter to eat than curried goat and oxtail.



For salad we return to kale with red onion, grape tomato, and a dressing of mustard, Lyle's golden syrup, sherry vinegar, lemon juice, and olive oil.



The fish market had some great-looking Dover sole on special so I picked up a pound which I cooked with a tiny bit of butter and olive oil, garlic, shallot, grape tomato, lemon, white wine, and parsley. I made a generous amount of sauce which I tossed with some cooked cappellini.

For good measure I topped the dish off with some Pimiento de Padrón that I threw into a hot pan for a few minutes. They'd held up very well in the nine days in the fridge since we picked them up. They are delicious but approximately one in ten are face-blisteringly hot. The remaining nine out of ten are quite enjoyable once the sensation returns to your tongue.



For wine we enjoyed the same wine I used to make the pasta sauce which we acquired on our wine tour of Michigan last summer. It was a kerner from Tabor Hill.



The temptation was strong to enjoy one of the rum cakes we got in Jamaica for dessert, however, I feel it is more important to save that for an upcoming Jamaican night. So instead we had our usual dessert of yogurt, granola, and whatever chocolates could be scrounged up.

Jamaican night is going to be so awesome.

A Comedy of Peppers

We were, perhaps, a little ambitious with our farmer's market purchases on Saturday knowing that we were on the brink of leaving the country. Normally the purchase of such wonderful produce would spur a trip elsewhere to procure ingredients for elaborate use. However, our imminent departure demanded that we use the few ingredients we got with only the ingredients we already had on hand.



One of the items we purchased were pimientos de Padrón. These are little heirloom peppers which are grown in Padrón, Spain. Luckily they are so fantastic that they require a minimal amount of fuss. Since we were low on fuss supplies this worked out quite well. I threw them in a hot pan with a little olive oil, salt, and when they were lightly browned I grated a little lemon zest over them. These particular peppers were not grown in Padrón but rather in upstate New York.

However, one thing I discovered after further investigation was that I mistook the pimientos de Padrón for the Shishito peppers we'd also purchased. So, these are actually Shishito peppers which, for the record, are quite good being cooked in this method. Perhaps later this week we will be able to enjoy the pimientos de Padrón with the full awareness of what we are actually doing.

The thing about peppers is that they all look very similar.



For a salad I roasted the remainder of our local New York cauliflower, tossed it in olive oil, lemon juice, Piave, salt, pepper, and parsley and served it over some torn kale leaves. This is a pretty traditional way of doing cauliflower in Italy (more specifically Sicily) if you forget about the fact that they don't use a lot of kale in Italian cooking.



For the main course I used some India Paint eggplant, Rosa Bianca eggplant, red onion, garlic, kale, chicken stock, mozzarella, and Piave, with fusilli.

And there you have it, an inexpert use of a fantastic farmer's market haul. Perhaps the next time we go to the market we will stay in the country for more than a few days.

We're kinda dumb.

International Short Rib Night

Friday marked the last day of buying groceries. Since we're leaving the country soon it's not top priority to use up whatever we have lying around and make sure that we leave as few perishable items in the fridge as possible. My recent adventures in onion soup has left us with enough onion soup to sustain us for the remainder of the year. I reserved a little and threw the rest in the freezer as not to put us off of onion soup for the rest of our lives.



Last night I got a couple of nice beef short ribs, seared them, and then covered them with onion soup, braising them for about 2.5 hours. Right before they were finished I made a quick polenta with corn meal, chicken stock, ricotta, and Piave.



I served the short ribs in the polenta and topped them with some of the soup/braising liquid. It was a pretty fantastic meal for a cold, cold night. As we enjoyed the braised dinner I received a text message from my sister-in-law with the following image.



Apparently Jen's father had taken the opportunity to make a short rib lasagna for dinner last night. My sister-in-law sent me this picture to try to rally me to her militant vegetarian cause in talking about how disgusting this was. This had the opposite of her desired effect. Of my sister-in-law's many positive traits picking her audience is not one of them.



Tonight was a scrobbled together pasta and salad affair and an opportunity to try yet another Oktoberfest beer, this time from Blue Point Brewing Company. It is good but not exactly the ideal match for gnocchi with tomatoes and ricotta.

However, if the flow of this dinner was at all inconsistent then tonight will pale in comparison to the Frankendinners we are about to witness.

They're ALIVE!

First Anniversary Fairy Tale

A year ago today we moved into our new apartment. For much of the first week we had no gas and no ability to cook. Also, I was suffering from a debilitating thumb injury which prevented me from cooking without much challenge.

I actually completely forgot about our lack of heat and my damaged thumb before reading back to last year's posts. That is a testament to how fondly we remember that time. However, looking back at where we were one year ago I am happy to say we are in much better shape this evening.



At the farmer's market today we found these wonderful little fairy tale eggplant. Partly because they were so tiny and cool-looking but also partly because we were told they were creamy and delicious. I was skeptical about that.



Along with onion, carrot, sweet potato, and local cauliflower I cooked down the fairy tale eggplant and made a vegetable korma.

Also with all of this I added some purple and yellow beans from last year's farmer's market visit. Purple beans are like the practical joke of the farmer's market in that they cook to be completely green like any regular bean you might happen upon.



I also toasted up some naan and served it with some mango chutney.



For beer I had, perhaps, the last of the autumn beers, this pumpkin ale from Smuttynose Brewing Company. Using my pumpkin spice/Indian-curry theory from last week
I chose this beer for tonight's meal and, again, it worked quite well.

Finishing up our autumnal beer collection on October 2nd may have been getting a little too much of a jump on this season's beers. However, I am now ready for the winter and if anything else comes my way perhaps I'll layer it into the blog.

You may be dissatisfied because I haven't been spewing forth a bunch of reviews of the beer. If that's the case then here's my review of this beer:

This beer is nutty and hoppy with malt overtones. The keen taster will detect hints of caramel and hops. It is very drinkable with a great mouthfeel. Full bodied but not aggressive. Citrusy hop finish. Great flavor profile.

Now just use that review for every future beer I list.

You're welcome.