soyons ouf: cooking

Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

THE PAST FEW WEEKS VIA INSTAGRAM

1. my cookbook collection
2. Coachella weekend 1
3. hummus and cheese crackers made from scratch
4. secret hot springs
5. waking up at my mom's Cowboys and Indians party.
6. Coachella weekend 2
7. stuffed mushrooms and berry tartes with creme patissiere.
8. yogurt, berry, and muesli breakfast popsicles
9. warpaint at Cowboys and Indians

you can follow me on instagram HERE

BURRATA NIGHT

Burrata Night has always been a pretty popular request at my house. You present each guest with one burrata and lots of side dishes. By allowing everyone to compose their own plate, everybody leaves satisfied. You can get creative and interchange the vegetables based on what’s in season, I’m just using what I found at my local market. As a vegetarian, I find that roasting vegetables brings out the best flavors and I’ve never gotten a complaint from any of my meat-eating friends. Using prosciutto helps me avoid cooking meat, which I’m fairly unfamiliar with. I like to serve it all with olive oil, fleur de sel, fresh black pepper, homemade balsamic reduction, and delicious crusty bread to soak it all up. A good red wine doesn’t hurt either. If you have a BBQ, feel free to grill instead of roasting, but here are the oven instructions for those of you without. I’ve arranged them according to ideal prep+cook time, all together should take you about two hours. Serves four.

Shopping List

4 BURRATA

10 SLICES PROSCIUTTO

2 LARGE ONIONS

2 RED BELL PEPPERS

2 SMALL ZUCCHINI

1 EGGPLANT

1 LARGE HEIRLOOM TOMATO

CHERRY TOMATOES ON VINE

3 CUPS CHANTERELLE MUSHROOMS

STRAWBERRIES

MACHE SALAD

BASIL

THYME

BALSAMIC VINEGAR

OLIVE OIL

GOOD CRUSTY BREAD, LIKE BAGUETTE

GOOD RED WINE

Roasted Bell Peppers

Preheat oven to 450°F. Place bell peppers on a lined baking sheet and roast until skin starts to blacken, turning once or twice to make sure all sides roast evenly. When ready, place bell peppers in a paper bag and allow to cool. The steam will make it easier to remove the skin. When cool enough to handle, remove stems, seeds, and skin and slice lengthwise.

Zucchini

Cut zucchini into long spears and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper and allow to roast with bell peppers at 450°F for 20 minutes or until golden.

Eggplant

While the peppers and zucchini are in the oven, slice the eggplant in half lengthwise. Cut a deep grid into each half diagonally, being careful not to pierce the skin. Open the cuts and sprinkle salt into them, then set aside for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 400°F. Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil onto each half, sprinkle with thyme and place facedown on a lined baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of your eggplant. The bottom should be soft and caramelized.

Balsamic Reduction

In a small saucepan, bring one cup of balsamic vinegar to a boil. Turn heat to low, and allow to reduce for about ten minutes. You should be able to coat a spoon with the liquid, but do not overcook, it will thicken as it cools.

Caramelized Onions

Halve the onions and slice cross-wise. Heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium heat, add onions, and stir until golden. I like to add about two “shots” of water into the pan about five minutes into it and let it cook off. I find that it softens the onions and gives them a beautiful golden color. Keep 1/3 of the onions in the pan, transfer rest to bowl.

Wild Mushrooms

Add the chanterelles into the pan with the remaining 1/3 of onions, adding a few more tablespoons of oil. Sautee over medium heat until golden, about ten minutes.

Tomatoes

Slice the heirloom crosswise and arrange on a plate with basil leaves. Lay the cherry tomatoes over the top, drizzle with olive oil.

Strawberries, Prosciutto, and Mache

Arrange each ingredient in it’s own bowl or plate and serve.

all photos by Olivia da Costa for Sous Style

Sous Style Buratta Night

I prepared a Burrata Night, one of my favorite dinners, for the newly launched site Sous Style. Everyone gets a burrata, and picks and chooses from lots of delicious side dishes: roasted bell peppers and zucchini, prosciutto, chanterelle mushrooms, caramelized onions, mache green salad, and heirloom and cherry tomatoes with basil. Balsamic reduction, crusty baguette and good wine as well. We shot this in Paris back in July. Check out the rest here. Let me know if you want the recipes!

HOT SAUCE

Hot sauce. One of my most favorite things in the world. I don't know why I never attempted to make my own until now. Let me introduce you to my favorites:

Susie's. This baby I discovered after spending a lot of time in Antigua one winter. Last time I was there I bought two gigantic bottles and went through them within six months.

Sriracha. One friend described it as "the culinary duct tape, a quick fix for anything." Another explained, "it's like hot sauce and ketchup had a baby that's waaaay cooler than either of the parents." I put it on pretty much everything.

D'Elidas. This bad boy is really spicy at first, until you get used to it. It comes from Panama. So good with plantains.

Las Vegas Hot Sauce. This is one of my new favorites, discovered by chance on an overnight stop in Sin City. I can't decide whether the roasted garlic, orange, or red savina flavor is my favorite... I'll take them all!

When making my own I wanted to incorporate all my favorite elements from each sauce: the chunkiness and kick of Susie's and D'Elidas, the garlicky sweetness of Sriracha, and the orange and roasted garlic of the Las Vegas sauce.

What you'll need:

2 heads roasted garlic (for a great roasted garlic recipe click here)
2 shallots, minced
1 small onion, minced
2 orange segments, chopped
1/2 tomato, finely diced
2 tablespoons honey (this is a rough guess, I just gave it two good squirts, you can adjust it to your taste)
2 tablespoons Harissa (Moroccan chili paste, normally used for couscous. Again, this is a rough guess.)
Salt and pepper
Water
Olive oil

-Heat up some olive oil in a small saucepan, add the onions and shallots and stir until golden.
-Add tomatoes, roasted garlic and orange segments.
-Turn heat to low, add water and allow to simmer and reduce. You will do this about five or six times over the course of an hour, stirring from time to time, to allow the ingredients to break down.
-Once desired consistency is achieved, add honey, harissa, and salt and pepper to taste.

Store in refrigerator.

mo buttah mo betta

The more you shake it, the better you make it. How much does this man make you want to make butter? And how amazing is his beard!

pour.

shakey shakey!

science.

final product, plus fleur de sel, herbes de provence and some black pepper.

HOME

This is a couch I found on craigslist. It's faux suede and pretty terrible looking, but it laid flat and was the perfect length to fit into a nook on the other side of my patio. I went for it, figuring I would throw something pretty over it, but when the couch arrived it was just a few inches too wide. So, with the help of my friend Anthony, we ripped off one side of the armrests and MADE it fit.

Now, I've decided to move it to the other side and lay it flat as a daybed. Thing is, not many places make slipcovers for my newly customized shape, so I did it myself using a beautiful Ikat fabric.

When Tessa suggested we make Indian food last night, I knew exactly who to turn to... Manjula's Kitchen. I discovered Manjula after I came back from India last year with spices and chickpea flour and was convinced I was going to make Indian food every day (which I didn't). Anyway, one trip to Whole Foods and a newly stocked spice cabinet later, we were cooking up Indian food like it was no big deal. She makes it so easy, all you really need are the right spices. We made chana masala (chickpeas), baingan bharta (eggplant), raita, cauliflower, brown basmati rice, roti, and steak (which is very un-Indian but whatever I'm vegetarian), along with some naan, chutney, and some Indian beers... What a FEAST.