Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

Archive for April, 2008

I could have written this, too: “I like to believe that I was born with a pen in one hand and a book in the other.” But Meena beat me to it. People who know me know that I always have a book or three going, I subscribe to about 7 magazines, I read the newspaper every day and Newsweek every week, not to mention all the cookbooks … I don’t know how I keep up

And now Meena from Hooked on Heat is combining all of these loves in a new food blogging event: The Cook’s Book Club. I just ordered the book, “Serving Crazy with Curry,” from Amazon.com. I’m really looking forward to this.

I discovered the New York Times No-Knead Bread recipe a few months ago on SteamyKitchen.com and have made it a few times myself. Just doing my part here to get the word out You, too, can make delicious artisan bread at home with just a few minutes of hands-on time.

Just plan ahead by about 22 hours. It needs to rise for 18 hours right after mixing, then roll it around a little, then let rise another 2 hours before baking. But with the price of bread rising so much lately, it’s nice to be able to throw together water, flour, yeast and salt and get this result the next day:

This is my entry in this week’s Photo Friday photo challenge. The topic is Far From Home.

The furthest I have ever been from home was when I went to Turkey in May, 2001 on vacation with my mom, aunt, uncle, and two other couples who were friends of theirs. It was a wonderful trip – friendly people, great food, beautiful artwork and textiles. We had a wonderful time.

According to this site, it’s 5,282 miles from home in Virginia to Istanbul, Turkey.

One day we toured Ephesus, an ancient city near the southwest coast. This is a photo of the Ephesus Library. Archaeologists believe it was completed in the year 117.

This is a closeup of a statue in a niche to the right of the entrance to the library.

There’s a new food blogging event starting this month: Tasty Tools, hosted by Joelen’s Culinary Adventures. Wow, there was a huge response to this event! The round-up of all the recipes is here.

All crafts require the proper tools, so each month, Joelen will select a kitchen tool and to participate, you make a recipe that requires that tool and then blog about it.

Not being a fan of corned beef and cabbage, I made a delicious spring-green risotto for St. Patrick’s Day this year. One of the ingredients is Parmesan cheese, so I used my (fairly) new box grater to grate the cheese for the risotto.

I used to have a triangular grater, but it was awkward to use and had little feet on it – I’d lost one of them, so it didn’t balance properly and was a pain to use. So with the kitchen renovation, I bought a new one (along with other new stuff – new kitchen, new stuff ).

The new grater has a bottom piece to hold the ingredient you’re grating, and measurements on the side, so you can see how much you have. Pretty cool

And here’s the recipe for the risotto, adapted from Dan’s Ultimate Shrimp Risotto. This is the best risotto recipe I’ve found, and it can be customized for whatever ingredients you would like to include.

Risotto with Spring Vegetables

5 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup dry white wine, divided
6 tablespoons butter
1 to 2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 dried crushed red pepper
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon fresh tarragon
3/4 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 1/2 cups Arborio (risotto) rice
1 1/2 cups steamed spring vegetables such as asparagus tips, peas, green beans
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring broth and 1/4 cup wine to a simmer and hold over low heat.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add crushed red pepper and sauté for 30 seconds, then add shrimp. Sauté until shrimp begin to turn pink, about 2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup wine. Simmer until shrimp are just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Do not overcook shrimp or they become tough. Drain shrimp, reserving cooking liquid.

Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter in heavy large saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is pale golden, about 4 minutes. Add rice and stir to coat, about 2 minutes. Add 1-2 cups broth mixture. Simmer until liquid is absorbed, stirring often. Continue adding broth mixture 1/2 cup at a time, stirring often and simmering until liquid is absorbed before adding more, about 20 minutes total. Don’t “drown” risotto.

Add vegetables and cream to risotto.

Cook until rice is just tender and creamy, about 5 minutes longer. Add a final shot of white wine. Stir in reserved shrimp cooking liquid. Add shrimp. Add Parmesan. Remove from heat.

Stir in 2 tablespoons parsley into risotto. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to plates. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon parsley.

Last Wednesday, our TNT dinner group went to a new Mexican place that just opened in November – Plaza del Sol, at 22nd Street and Colonial Avenue in Ghent.

It’s an interesting space. There’s a large patio up front, with tables for dining al fresco, and a bar and dining room inside. It has a two-story ceiling and attractive Mexican decorations on the walls.

The food was just okay, though. Barbara, Susan and I all had the chicken fajitas with a side of refried beans. Nothing special there. I like the beans better at San Antonio Sam’s because they mix in lime juice and top with cheese to give more flavor.

Jane had a bowl of chicken tortilla soup. It looked good, and had lots of chicken in it, but it was not hot when it was served. The manager took care of that right away – we appreciated that. We’ll probably go back and try something else, but right now it’s just – so so.

I just finished the latest one, and already I can’t wait for next month’s Grow Your Own food blogging event. I have a couple of weeks to come up with a great recipe for using the Swiss chard and various lettuces in the garden right now. We also have string beans and peas coming up, but those won’t be ready till May.