This weekend was almost like an episode of 'Chopped' at our house. If you're not familiar with the tv show on Food Network, contestants get a basket of random ingredients (typically things you would never think would go together- "here's potatoes, beef, and a chocolate bar!") and they have to make a dish using all the ingredients in 20 or 30 minutes, depending what round it is. We had a bunch of random ingredients in our fridge that Tom wanted to use up, so he spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to make with them.
Here's what Tom ended up making:
-Peach/Sage Ice Cream
-Blueberry Buckwheat pancakes
-Roasted Eggplant Buckwheat Crepes, w/ Succotash puree and tomato sauce
-Fried Eggs, Home Fries, Breakfast Sausage
-Pan Seared Sirloin Steak Served Sliced w/ mushrooms over Polenta w/ leek, corn tomato gratin w/ smoked breadcrumbs
-Whole wheat/rye Levain Pullman Loaf
-Parlsey hazelnut pesto
-Parsley/Sage Red bean puree
(Sorry I don't have any pics this time!)
Tom got a zillion peaches from the CSA last week. Seriously, every time I looked at the two bowls overflowing with peaches, I got the song 'Peaches' by Presidents Of The United States Of America stuck in my head: "Millions of peaches, peaches for me..." So, to use up all the peaches, Tom made peach/sage ice cream. He had some issues with it, mainly that it wasn't 'peachy' enough, so he had to keep adding peaches to the custard. It turned out pretty good though. I'm not a super fan of peaches, but I like the ice cream. It kind of reminds me of orange sherbert (the kind you get in the plastic tub), because it has that very strong flavor that hits you when you take that first spoonful. Tom also strained out the fruit bits, so it has a smooth texture, which I like better. I don't really like getting chunks of frozen fruit in my ice cream.
Speaking of things I'm not a super fan of, Tom made eggplant again this weekend. This was a 'Chopped' challenge. We discussed this ALL Saturday afternoon. If Tom's trying to think of a dish, don't bother trying to talk to him about anything else. Unless the correct answer to 'what did you think of this article on James Franco?' is 'How about I make a corn puree....' He came up with a dozen different dishes (which he mostly shot down), debated going to the farmer's market to get more stuff (like we needed more stuff to complicate things further), and asked me for suggestions (he didn't like any of them). Finally, hours later, he figured out what he was going to make.
He ended up making buckwheat crepes filled with eggplant on top of succotash puree. He figured out that if he skins the eggplant and roasts it to basically mush, I'll eat it. (He's made jokes that I only like 'baby food'. Ironically, we ate dinner at 4:30, which is 'old people' dinner time, so we both need to act our ages.) The dish was good. The eggplant was meaty and savory, but not bitter, and the succotash puree went with it well, giving it some extra flavor. Tom also managed to make this dish in under 45 min, so if there had been a time limit (a la Chopped) he would have been ok.
The other noteworthy thing Tom made was the steak dinner (actually lunch- we ate it at 2 pm). Tom made the steak to make some room in our freezer, since its pretty full. He served it with mushrooms over polenta, and made a corn/tomato/leek gratin on the side. He had smoked bread crumbs a few weeks ago, and he put that on the dish. It added a nice flavor to the gratin, and it was really good. The steak and mushrooms were good too, and I'm picky when it comes to mushrooms.
So that's about it for this post, sorry again for the lack of visuals, I don't know why I spaced on taking photos this weekend!
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