Happy Happy Blue Cheese

So on a whim the other day I decided to grab a little slab of local Roquefort (I think) from my favourite butcher. As you may or may not know, a little blue cheese goes a long way.

Wondering what to do with blue cheese that might be progressing toward blue-and-orange cheese I felt a hankering for a good ol' hamburger. So back to the butcher with me it was. Basically I took a few fresh items that I needed to use and put them in the hamburger mix.

Happy Blue Hamburger Mix

12 oz. fresh extra lean hamburger
a hunk o' blue cheese (I had a 100g or so remnant I guess) processed into bits
a handful of flat leaf parsley chopped
one egg is un oeof (but if you don't think so by all means use another)
half a small onion minced

Now, as it turns out this made a fair bit. I know I sometimes have a 6 oz hamburger at a restaurant but I could easily have fed 4 people. As it was I made myself a very fat extra lean hamburger.

Sadly I am currently BBQ deficient, so I seared my hand-patted patty in a hot olive oil prepped fry pan. Then I turned down the heat and covered it with a lid to let it cook. It is tricky to know done-ness with this method but basically a cooked hamburger is a great deal firmer than one that isn't cooked in the middle. If you press down with your spatula you can gauge if it is done (a little, don't squash the luscious juiciness out of it!!) .

Of course if you have a BBQ handy, then by all means.

I put mine on a whole wheat hamburg bun with some dijon, a couple tomato slices, and mesclun greens. Garnish as you deem appropriate. Sauteed onions would be bombdigitty but I was lazy on this occasion. Served up with a side of Old Dutch baked Ketchup chips (why not?).

 More simple simple for you. As in not elaborate. Which is a complicated way of saying 'what could be easier?'

Bonus ant's eye table view. Albeit I don't know what an ant would see. Face-to-face with this massive hamburger patty it might see a meaty cliff face.

Until next time. If you're feeling blue then do your best to be happy about it.

The Leftover Steak Sandwich


Leftovers are nothing to sneeze at. Especially when they're this good. Yes, after yet another hiatus The Philosopher's Stove is back with another chart topper. No food stylist strikes this time. No, the food will be looking better than ever thanks to the new mighty Olympus digital with the magic 'Food' setting.

After a lovely reunion of old souls (and a few new ones) and the usual procession of food abundance I was left with a steak no one wanted to take home with them. Or perhaps I looked like I needed feeding. Thanks go out to google and allrecipes.com cause all I did was type in 'best steak marinade' and low and behold I found this:

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 3 tablespoons dried basil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (optional)
• 1 teaspoon dried minced garlic (optional)

It was under the heading 'Best Steak Marinade in Existence'. Lofty claim to be sure, but I'll tell you, it was damn good. Much as a friend once said "Nirvana is a good foundation to build your house of jazz upon."; this steak marinade was certainly an excellent foundation upon which to construct a mighty fine steak sandwich.

Now I didn't follow this exactly. Lots of people seem to like white pepper. I have acquired it on a few occasions but I never seem to hang on to it. And I certainly didn't follow these amounts exactly. Don't think I went for the hot pepper sauce option either, and hot pepper sauces certainly do vary. I threw a version of this existential marinade on my donated cow and left it in the fridge for a day or three.

Somewhere in my credo I mentioned easy. There's really nothing to this. I had a monster steak donated so I made another fine mealo out of the first half. The second half I cut into strips tossed in a cast iron skillet with some carmelized onions, added a little Kraft brown sugar BBQ sauce and dished it up with some leftover grape tomatoes cut in half on a bun. Looks good don't it? :)

And that's all he wrote.

What's the Dillio Z?

Sorry for the hiatus folks. My food stylist went on strike. Tomatoes were thrown. It was ugly. Anyway, back to culinary concerns.

Today's Special: Zucchini Soup with Dill

A good summer entry. Thanks to Mark Bittman and his 'Kitchen Express' book for this one. Couldn't be simpler.

2 Zukes
1 Onion
a pat of butter
Chicken or Veggie stock
Fresh Dill
Yogourt/Sour Cream/Fresh Ricotta
Salt & Pepper

Put a medium-sized pot on medium or so. Shred those zukes with a grater into a bowl. Chop yer onion. Put butter in pot. Cook onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Throw in shredded zukes. Warm through and stir occasionally for about 5 minutes. Add enough stock to just cover. Blend until smooth. I like the trusty wand blender for this task. Add some pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer another 5 minutes or so. Adjust the seasonings. You may not need salt at all, my stock provided plenty. Simmer another couple minutes if need be to settle your seasoning adjustments in.

You can either serve right away with some fresh chopped dill and a dollop of yogourt, or whatever you prefer. I used plain organic yogourt, yo. Since it is hot I chilled it in the fridge first. I sampled before I did so. Delicious hot or cold. That's it. Enjoy.

I was taunting the grass. It was greenish-brown with envy.

Happy Accidents

Today's entry is brought to you by the letter 'Q', most aptly exemplified in 'Quixotic'.

Sometimes the best intentions go astray, and sometimes that is a very good thing indeed.

I have been away from the stove and larder of late and in my half remembered impressions of prior recipes I made an error. I had the notion of reproducing this lovely thai salad one again lifted from the 'Thai Vegetarian Cookbook', which I have referred to previously.

In preparation I acquired some green mangoes which I understood to be the principal part of the recipe. Ooops! The original happened to be green papaya. A bit of a different...um...fruit, but no matter!! Onward Ho!!

Green Mango Salad with Apples

2 green mangoes (not a different variety mind you, just unripened)
1 garlic clove
2 small red thai chilis (substitute whatever chilis you like, you may want to cut down to 1 if you're shy of fire)
1 tbsp roast peanuts
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp light soy sauce (or what some might call regular, not dark)
1 tsp sugar (I used brown)
1 apple (original recipe was tomato, I didn't have any)
2 large leaves of lettuce (original recipe was chinese cabbage, again none on hand)

1. Peel the skin off them mangoes and shred them with a grater. Set aside.

My mango peels and denuded mangoes looked kind of pretty so I snapped a shot of them too.

You will have to manoeuvre your way around the flat mango pits and try not to shred too much of the stringy stuff near the pit itself.

2. In a mortar, lightly pound the roughly chopped garlic, add the chilis (you'll want to seed them unless you like things really hot) and lightly pound again. Add the peanuts and lightly pound again. Stir occasionally and don't go too crazy here or you'll have produced a spicy form of peanut butter. Perhaps good for other applications but not so much here. ;) Don't have a mortar? You can improvise. I have faith in you.

3. Toss your peanut mixture in with the mango shreds.

4. Incorporate that and then chop up your apple and add that too.

5. Incorporate once again. Lay out your lettuce leaves in the bottom of a bowl and decant your salad on in there.

There you have it. Easy peezy, and deelish as it turns out. Who knew asian fusion was so easy. You can scoop up wads of this tasty mixture with the lettuce or shovel it in with a fork if you like. The lettuce is nice and you may wish to set aside a couple extra leaves for scooping purposes.

On this occasion I didn't settle with an appetizer alone so I did up this too:

Turmeric fried rice with ready-fried tofu (also lifted from Vactcharin Bhumichitr's Thai Vegetarian Cookbook) You may want to find yourself a copy. You can't have mine.

2 tbsp oil (I prefer peanut for these thai applications)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped (I went with 2 actually)
1 small onion (I used the bottom parts of some leftover scallions I had)
1 carrot, diced
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 cups cooked rice
1/2 tsp sugar (again, I used brown)
3 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp chili powder (or more)
1/2 cup ready-fried tofu (you can get this at an asian grocery, or use what you have, or fry yourself in advance)

To garnish

1 spring onion
1 medium tomato (would be good, again didn't have one)
3 inch hunk of cucumber cut into 1/2 inch slices (again, would be good, again...none for me)

One needs to cook the rice so I prepped all the other ingredients ahead of time after setting the rice to cook.

Pre-prepped layout.

Post prep.

Post-punk prep.

*Ahem

1. In a wok or frying pan heat the oil until it is good and hot. About 3/4 high. I set to 8 on my electric stove.

2. Add the garlic and fry until golden brown. Happens quickly, be ready with the other stuff.

3. Stirring all the time, add the onion, carrot, turmeric powder and cooked rice. Stir thoroughly. I like to use the chef's flip. I find it most effective. Be careful though. Turmeric will stain anything it touches.

4. Add the sugar, soy sauce, and chili powder. Stir thoroughly. Add the beancurd (tofu), stir and warm through then turn on to a serving dish.

5. Sprinkle with chopped spring onion (green parts, or both if you like). Arrange the tomato and cucumber at the side of the dish (if you have such things).

There you have it. Seen here served alongside the tasty salad. You could probably eat the fried rice with lettuce leaves or cabbage or what-have-you if you like, and go sans cutlery. :) Enjoy!

Easy Does It

Well, my dear ooey glued reader best laid plans for my cleanse/detox and writing articles thereof hath gone astray.  My efforts lead to lack of balance in my life and serious backlash into even worse tendencies than that of just a few weeks ago.  None of the promised blogging on aforementioned recipes got done either.  Something that may have gone unnoticed.

Fear not brave travellers!!  Fall down 7 times, get up 8!!!

With lessons in balance and humility once again remedialized we carry on with our best recipes for success.  This one designed to help you out when minimal effort is the order of the day.

Instant Kimchi Noodles with Sprouts, Watercress, and Basil

You will need:

One package O Instant Noodles (I like the Korean Kimchi or Spicy Noodle, go with your favourite or what you have on hand)
Bag O' Bean Spouts (handily available fresh and grown locally here in Ontario)
Watercress (was on sale for 99 cents at the supermarket.  US import, why not?)
Basil or Thai Basil (Mint? Sure!! Use what is available.  Catching a theme here?)

So, I used:

1. Prepare in the usual way, or not.  Directions on ze package.  I like to use a bit more water than called for.  The soup mixture is pretty powerful stuff and contains about 1/2 one's sodium intake for the day but these minor demons can be overlooked in the name of avoiding another night of grabbing a burrito at El Camino's Burrito Emporium (Good as they are).

2. Break out your array of accountrements and trim/rinse as necessary.

3. Decant noodles into bowl and crown that puppy with your glorious herbiage. 

Et viola!  How could you possibly go wrong with this?

Maybe not the best thing to be eating every night of the week.  Those instant noodles aren't the most healthsome thing one can consume, but I never heard any stories yet of university students keeling over from sodium and suphite poisoning.  Good in a pinch, very savoury and satisfying. 

If you want to health it up you could do up your own noodles with a good stock or sauce.  You could go gluten free, rice noodles, or whatever.  It wouldn't be much more effort to put this into the super healthy wholesome category.

Enjoy!

He He He Hoh Hoh Hoh

Oh oui!  'Zis ees dee one.  Ze sacred elixir.  Culinary staple of restaurants zee world ovair:

French Onion Soup

Sadly many a restaurant botches this masterful masterpiece of savoury soupy goodness.  Not to worry my wee cherie.  You can make your own!

You will need:

3 to a million onions (I usually use about 6 or so)
2tbsp to 1/2 cup butter
3tbsp to 1/4 cup olive oil
4 to a million cups of soup stock (beef or veggie)
2 to a few tsp of Herbes de Provence (or whatever, use fresh herbiage if you have it)
Wine? (Red or White, Purple or Rose?)
Salt and Pepper
Bread?
Cheese? (some cheddar or smoked gruyere or what-have-you to put on top)

Ok, so French Onion Soup is really quite easy.  The key ingredient here that is often botched in restaurants is...time (see the previous Zen story if you haven't read it, if you have it couldn't hurt to read it again).

1.  So start with ze onions.  Get yourself a big soup pot of dutch over going about medium heat on the stove.  Throw in your butter and olive oil.  How much?  Up to you.  Are you using a few or a bushel of onions?  Do you like your soup with a cleaner finish or do you love sumptuous levels of fat and oil floating on the surface?  This time around I used my standard 6 onions, a quarter stick of butter (3 tbsp), and a good glug of olive oil (about 4 tbsp).  Having sampled the end result I may even have preferred to have gone the full half stick of butter (1/4 cup).

A word or few on onion chopping.  You can go zis way:

Or you can go zis way:

Now, I prefer the former over the latter 'cause I like the way the onion splinters but you have it your way.  When I go the latter way I often split the onion so there won't be long tendrils of onion to complicate your soup slurping satisfaction later.

Ok, zat is zat.

2.  Just keep slicing your onions and adding them to your pot as your slicing.  Give them a stir to keep everything happy while you are slicing.

2. Now this is the key part.  You can turn your heat up medium-high to brown your onions but...DON'T GO ANYWHERE.  Initially you'll need to stir every minute or so but as the onions saute they will progress toward burning via a geometric acceleration.  Ideally if you had an hour or two to spend making the best soup ever you would incrementally turn down the heat at the onions cooked until you obtained a deep mahogany brown-purple colour.  On this occasion I didn't have such luxury available to me.  So...continuing on...

Not nearly enough, keep going...

Now, everyone is open to the foibles of their own admonishments.  I was trying to multitask while making my soup this time and so I did burn a bit to the bottom of the pan.  No worries!!  Don't drive yourself crazy trying to scrape the burny bits up.  Just stir away until you've got your onions looking nice and brown.

3.  Now is the time to deglaze with your wine or stock.  I chose red wine this time and went for a cup of it.  Honestly, it was a bit much in my opinion.  I have seen recipes that recommend two cups.  I'm a less is more kind of guy.  I used:

Use whatever you like but don't use cheap cheap wine.  Cooking wine isn't for cooking.  It isn't for anything.  It is crap.  You may however equally use any kind of wine that suits your fancy, or none.

4.  Now you've deglazed with your wine (or not) you can go ahead and add your stock, seasonings, and herbs.  I start with a minimum of each.  You can add stock incrementally until you've the amount of soup you want without sacrificing richness and flavour.  I used about 6 or 7 cups of Knorr instant beef stock this time around.  Herb wise I used a little dried sage and oregano this time.  Not your typical accoutrements for French Onion Soup but its what I had.  If you have fresh herbs I would add them later.  I also threw in a bay leaf.

5.  Simmer this awhile and add stock, adjust seasoning and herbs as you see fit.  That's it really.

6.  You can serve this as is or naturally you can do the traditional hunk of baguette (or what have you bread wise) floated on your soup in a bowl, and broil some cheese on top of it in the oven (or use you're nifty blowtorch if you're fancy like that if you like).  This time around I simply grated some good old cheddar (local from Mapledale Farms) in there before serving it to my family.

There verdict from the fam was favourable though I felt this was not my best effort.  It could have been savourier, more scumdiddlyuptious.  I tried to cheat the gods of time and I received my modicum of punishment for it.  My apologies O culinary gods and godesses, please don't hate me forever.  In the eating frenzy with the fam I didn't snap a picture of the proceeds but it should look something like this:

The Secret Ingredient

Didn't quite make it to bed yet.  Because I've been meaning to find this story for some time and I just remembered to track it down just now.  I am now reminded that I read it in Benjamin Hoff's 'The Tao of Pooh', although I may have encountered it elsewhere also:

A certain Samurai had a reputation for impatient and hot-headed behaviour. A Zen master, well known for his exceptional cooking, decided the warrior needed to be taught a lesson before he became any more dangerous. He invited the samurai to dinner.

The samurai arrived at the appointed time. The Zen master told him to make himself comfortable while he finished preparing the food. A long time passed. The samurai waited impatiently. After a while he called out: "Zen Master, have you forgotten me?"

The Zen master came out of the kitchen. "I am very sorry" he said "Dinner is taking longer to prepare than I had thought. He went back to the kitchen.

A long time passed. The samurai growing hungrier by the minute. At last he called out, a little softer this time:"Zen Master, please - when will dinner be served?"

The Zen master came out of his kitchen. "I'm sorry. There has been a further delay. It won't be much longer." He went back into the kitchen.

A long time passed. Finally, the samurai couldn't endure the waiting any longer. He rose to his feet, chagrined and ravenously hungry. Just then the Zen Master entered the room with a tray of food. First he served miso shiru (soy bean soup).

The samurai gratefully drank the soup, enchanted by its flavour. "Oh, Zen Master," he exclaimed, this is the finest miso shiru I have ever tasted! You truly deserve your reputation as an expert cook!"

"It's nothing," replied the Zen Master modestly,"only miso shiru."

The samurai set down his empty bowl. "Truly magical soup! What secret spices did you use to bring out the flavour?"

"Nothing special," the Zen Master replied.

"No, no-I insist. The soup is extraordinarily delicious!"

"Well, there is one thing…"

"I knew it!" exclaimed the samurai, eagerly leaning forward. "There had to be something to make it taste so good! Tell me–what is it?"

The Zen Master softly spoke: "It took time," he said.