By mlb, on April 19th, 2010%
Fennel pollen is kind of expensive but also really amazing. There really isn’t a great substitute for it, so if you’ve got a little extra money, I’d invest in some. So fragrant. Kind of like if you mixed fennel with curry and some kind of mystery tasty ingredient. I’ve seen it online at Amazon. I was going to go that route but, in the words of jwa, I was able to score some through my “shadowy, underground, food blog connections.”
Actually, I made a comment on twitter about wanting to get some and a fellow pdxer offered to sell me some from a big, fancy food order they were putting together! But honestly, I think “shadowy, underground, food blog connections” sounds better. Much more mysterious…
Even without the fennel . . . → Read More: Pork Chop Heaven, aka: Pork Chops with Fennel Pollen
By mlb, on April 5th, 2010%
I once spent the better part of a day making a Rick Bayless Mole Sauce recipe. Hours and hours and the end result was…fine. Which I’m pretty sure had much more to do with my execution than the recipe, but there it is. I wasn’t in love with it and jwa actually didn’t like it. Then I make this recipe not expecting much and it is really good. I guess you just never know.
Of course I have absolutely no problem spending all day on a sauce, but I’m okay taking a short cut or two, which is no way should be interpreted as a “semi-homemade’ anything. Seriously. Don’t make me come over there.
Anyway, even though this is “easy” it still takes about an hour or so to . . . → Read More: Easy Mole Sauce (and what to do with it)
By mlb, on February 28th, 2010%
Oh my god, this was so good. I think this is the best cake i’ve ever made. I think this will be my signature cake, you know, if I ever need a signature cake.
I wasn’t even sure this was going to turn out as I basically combined two recipes, substituted some ingredients and just hoped for the best. It’s a little spicy, very vanilla-y, with a little hit of citrus.
This cake uses cheese! Intriguing! But, instead of all ricotta cheese, I used one cup of mascarpone and 1/2 cup of ricotta — but you could use all ricotta (what the original recipe with the cheese called for if you wanted to). I just had the marscapone on hand and I wanted to use it.
The cake has a . . . → Read More: Cardamom, Vanilla & Orange Pound Cake
By mlb, on December 7th, 2009%
This is a kind of recipe mash-up. A lamb tagine recipe (with the wonderful & amazing spice-paste-rub stuff) and a chicken tagine recipe with the tomatoes and broth and oven cooking. And wow, good call to mix the two recipes togetther! This was WONDERFUL — all caps wonderful. I wrote it down right after dinner so I would remember exactly what I did.
Let’s see, what else? I did not make this in an actual tagine (*hint* *hint*) but a big, heavy, ovenproof, wide skillet. That worked well. I also used some of a spice mix I got at Penzeys — Rogan Josh. It has ginger, paprika, cumin, garlic, etc…so if you don’t have that specific blend, you can just add a little of those spices or omit it, . . . → Read More: Chicken Tagine with Chickpeas & Golden Raisins
