Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

By now, you’ve totally heard us *kvetch* that we’re waiting for the day when ES makes it BIG. And when that happens, you’ll surely get recipes that you can use ahead of time, instead of hearing about them after the fact.

Example: I’m going home for Passover this weekend. Not really sure what I’m going to make yet, so unfortunately, I can’t give you great, original ES dishes to try at your family seder. But I will be able to report back, and hopefully give you some inspiration on what kosher food to make for the following days.

So far though, my mom has requested twice-baked potatoes, and I’m thinking I’ll spike mine, SAG’s and DAD GANSIE’s with some wasabi powder. (My mom is the plainest eater in the world, no wasabi for her. Actually, I say she has a “delicate pallet” because that’s the nicest way I can think of to say she won’t eat shit.) I’ve also requested steak for dinner, because it’ll only be the four of us for the first night.

When my aunt’s family comes over for the second seder, we’ll see what group-style meal we come up with - probably turkey or brisket. DAD GANSIE’s a huge proponent of the bird year round. I’ve been asking him to post his turkey soup for a long time now (hint, hint).

Oh, and clearly we’re making matzah ball soup.

Here, though, are some interesting kosher-for-passover recipes:

Fruited Quinoa Salad [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] (via 80P’s Mom)

Matzoh Lasagna [A Mighty Appetite]

Mediterranean Fish Cakes [Culinate, Zena Chew Collection]

———
And please, totally send me your Passover suggestions

Photo: Charleston Heston as Moses

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People tend to cringe when I tell them what I eat for Christmas dinner. The Sweigard household generally serves up a fairly ethnic (Estonian and German) Christmas dinner- a meat heavy, tan plate of goodness. Blood sausage, pork loin, pickled beets, sauerkraut, roasted potatoes, homemade rolls and green beans (for color I think) grace our plates every Christmas Eve, right before we go to church and pass out. I guess people get the wrong idea when they hear blood sausage- maybe it sounds kind of, well, gross. But people should keep in mind that it’s wrapped in bacon! And I’ve been eating it every year for Christmas since I was born and no one told me what it was until I was like 15! So lay off already!

Um, so instead of focusing on blood sausage, I’ll just give you the recipe to my family’s sauerkraut instead. It’s great. And has beer AND bacon in it.

The recipe and more yummy pictures after the jump!

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I’m sure you noticed, but ES did not take part in any New Year’s resolution crap. Know what 80 and I did New Year’s Day - we sat at a bar and drank, went to dinner and drank, went to another bar and drank, and then went home and drank. There were no salads involved and the only exercise we got was stumbling from place to place.

Sure, I used to make a resolution. Same one every year, in fact - lose ten pounds. I’m old now, though. I’m done resolving. But, as I still live in America, with ab-fucking-surd standards for women, I’m forced to eat right sometimes and work out once in a while.

Pictured above is my first healthy meal of 2008. Recipe is post jump.

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Picking a book for my book club tends to be a slightly contentious undertaking each meeting. Although we are a small group, our different tastes in literature can provide us with a challenge in deciding what to undertake next. While a book club is a great excuse to read and catch up with friends, I also see it as an opportunity to test my culinary skills.

The hostess of each meeting is charged with providing the entire meal for the group. Personally, I love tying my meal to the book as closely as possible. Sometimes this is a daunting undertaking – A Million Little Pieces proved too much for my culinary creativity. Luckily, last month I had Reading Lolita in Tehran as my inspiration. The internets came to my rescue and provided me with an easy, scrumptious stew to serve my book club: Khoresh-E Bademjan.

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Mango, persimmon and raspberry sushi with coconut shavings

Scene: 6pm. Thursday night. Pinch of Minch and BS lounge on the couch
during hour two of Curb Your Enthusiasm marathon. A crumbled bag of
pretzels lay on the table. Somewhere, a stomach growls.

Pinch of Minch: Dude, Brendan, I’m hungry.
BS: Yah.
P o M: I mean, really hungry.
BS: Uh huh.
P o M: I want sushi. Real bad. Like, if I don’t have it, I may die.
Do you know what I mean?
BS: No I don’t, but sushi sounds good.

They go back to watching TV, until 30 minutes later….

P o M: Dude, I’ve got a crazy idea. We should make sushi.
BS: Eureka.
P o M: Out of what’s in the fridge. Like what-ev-er is in there,
mayonnaise and mac and cheese sushi. Pickle and coffee ice cream
sushi.*
BS: Hmmm. What about fruit? Fruit plus sushi is fruishi.
P o M: I have some frozen hot dogs. I’m making hot dog sushi. I am a genius.
BS: Let’s make some crazy sushi.
P o M: This could be really gross.

They give each other high fives and race to the kitchen. What follows
is a Lewis and Clark expedition of culinary craziness. And a short
time later, some of the oddest- and damn fine- sushi emerges from the
kitchen and into the bellies of our two protagonists.

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Looks like it’s shaping up to be a recipe-heavy day here at endless simmer - on a food blog, who knew?

Edouble recently told us that cooking up a curry ain’t as hard as it sounds, you just have to be willing to cheat a tiny bit and use some of those premade curry sauces. As e-dubs points out, I’m not about to go home after work and grind up some lemongrass, so this is definitely allowed.

I put together this heavy-on-the-staples, light-on-the-liquid curry, based on the random ingredients I found at my new local food co-op (much more on that later). It’s a pretty unorthodox mixture, but I think the flavors all work. Usually Thai curries are reserved for chicken or shrimp, but I see no reason why their sweet, coconut-y goodness can’t be shared with something heavier, in this case, delicious baby sheep.

Plus, I’m not usually one to get all 30-minute-meals on ya’ll, but this is pretty damn quick and easy.

Recipe after the j.

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Beef, it’s what’s for dinner…

At least usually when I’m cooking. I am a red meat monger and I sometimes wonder if I might be suffering from some kind of Iron deficiency. Anyway, had a tasty steak night this week. We used our newest favorite way to prep steaks that are going on the grill—olive oil and coarse sea salt. Type of steak—boneless short ribs, mmmmm. Sort of fattier than other cuts, but all the more juicy. Medium rare, of course. Along side the meat we grilled zucchini and yellow squash, sautéed up some red chard, and served it all with a side of rice. Isn’t it beautiful!

The power of coarse sea salt is really amazing, actually. While at the beach I used it on two 2lb tri-tips. Normally I rub the oil and salt on maybe 10 to 15 minutes before the meat hits the heat, but this time I did it an hour or so beforehand. The result—succulent but salty beef. But hey, I also love salty foods. We skewered yellow squash, zucchini, and baby bellas to go with. It was quick, easy, and tasty.

The “surf” portion after the jump.

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Our friend jakeSG sent me this fabulous email and post about his tasty food experiences in Costa Rica.

Be jealous.

********

from: jakeSG
to: gansie
date: Sep 4, 2007 9:00 PM
subject: New Study Finds Beans to be 30% Less Musical Than Originally Thought

Attached is my blog attempt. It is probably too long, so feel free to trim it, format it, whatever, but post that sh*t, make that sh*t, and then fart a few times..oh wait..girls don’t fart.

enjoy.

********

I recently returned from 21 days in the lush cloud forests of Costa Rica. Of the 21 days there, I ate beans, rice or both 17 of those days. You might think that after three weeks of the same food I’d be ready for something new. You’d be right. But after two weeks back in my home country, once again I was craving that hearty staple of Central American cuisine.

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Inspired by my fav local Mexican place, I decided to try my hand at Chiles Rellenos, a brilliant invention that combines four of my top culinary delights: Mexican food, cheese, stuffing veggies and frying in oil. Genius.

Full disclosure: This was a joint venture with Chef Mom. Our cooking styles fit together well, although she did wash the floor after me about seven times during the process. I used this killer recipe, which I’ve written up after the jump, along with my modifications.

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