Kitchen Update

It occurred to me tonight that I have not posted for a while about what I have been cooking. So here is a quick update on some of the meals I have enjoyed lately and that I remembered to take a photo of.

First up there was a rather tasty slow baked salmon dish a few weeks ago, with a herb sauce thingy on top, and accompanied by some jolly good caramelized onions. The herb thing had a nice lemon note to it and was super tasty.

A week or so ago I decided to try making eggs benedict. I used to order this pretty much whenever I went out for brunch in New Zealand, but I haven't really been getting up in time for brunch most Saturdays lately, and weekdays and Sundays I never allow myself enough time for making a cooked breakfast. So I had it for dinner instead. The hollandaise sauce tasted good, but was a little bit too thin, otherwise it tasted pretty good. I don't know how highly it would rank on Andrew's eggs benedict ratings but I assure you the coffee that went with it was very good and I couldn't fault the ambiance. After making hollandaise sauce and seeing what goes in to it, I have decided maybe I should sometimes choose a different item off the brunch menu, it is not all that good for me.

Canadian thanksgiving happened to fall on my birthday this year and I was fortunate enough to have 2 thanksgiving dinners to attend (the first one the day before thanksgiving). For both events I was asked to bring dessert. For the first dessert I decided on poached pears with a red wine caramel sauce. The red wine in the poaching liquid colours the pears really nicely, it would have made for a wonderful photo, but alas I didn't have my camera handy so sorry no photos. They tasted pretty good though. For the second dessert I only had 1 days notice, so pretty much had to do everything on the Monday; and given my tendency to not wake up in the morning when I don't really have to, I had to make something that would be ready quickly. After a quick search through my cookbooks I settled on a bittersweet chocolate mousse. I realised a little late that I was 1 egg short, so had to adjust the quantities a bit, but it still seemed to work. It was super rich, so the reduced volume didn't matter so much.


As I was walking home from work on Friday I decided to stop in at the HomeSense store and see if they had any pasta machines. I had been thinking of getting one for a good 8 months or so, so I was very pleased to find there was 1 left in the store, and at only $20 it was too good to pass up. My first attempt at pasta on Friday night was not entirely satisfying. I made fettuccine, and it was not great to say the least. I still had half the dough left so put it in the fridge and decided to try it again the next day. This time I made sure the dough was well dusted in flour before running it through the machine at the various levels. It worked way better, and the Alfredo sauce that I cooked to go with it was a tasty little saucy thing indeed. Excited at the success I had with Saturday's efforts, today I decided to experiment a bit. First experiment didn't go too well. Turns out corn meal is just too coarse to work well in pasta, or maybe it needed another egg, I don't know. What I do know is that the pasta was just not coming together so I gave up and started over. This time I stuck to the basic recipe with just the addition of some finely chopped fresh basil. Bingo. I decided to have a go at making a filled pasta, so I mixed up some ricotta cheese with wilted spinach and diced prosciutto. Mmmm. And to finish off the dish I made a quick pasta sauce with canned tomatoes, artichoke hearts, garlic, shallots, olive oil and red wine vinegar. It all tasted rather good, so good that I am going to take the leftovers to work for lunch tomorrow. Hopefully reheating it won't spoil it too much.
Sorry the photo doesn't look all that good, I was in kind of a hurry to eat it.