Recipe of the Week Recap

I know I haven’t been keeping up with the recipes of the week, but not because we’ve been eating poorly. To the contrary, I’ve had difficulty remembering all of the new and fun things we’ve been trying, and forgetting exactly how I tweaked the recipes. Here’s a short list of the stuff we’ve tried within the past month:

• Roast leg of lamb
• Fresh garlic and rosemary butter (I learned how to blanch!)
• Slow cooker pork chops
• Pot roast with roasted shallot and red wine sauce
• Meatballs and marinara sauce (each from scratch)
• Baked garlic and rosemary french fries
• Goulash

I’m probably forgetting a couple of random things, but the point is that Marcus and I are on a ROLL. Trying out one new recipe every week has not only forced me to learn new cooking techniques (as well as important Dos and Don’ts), but has introduced a LOT of variety into our meal plans. We used to eat just a lot of white rice, frozen spinach, and either steak or chicken – and that was mostly it. Now I’m starting to get familiar with previously spooky and unknown spices, vegetables, meats (although to be fair, I rarely handle raw meat myself; the credit goes to Marcus for that due to my salmonella paranoia*), whatever. I’m learning more about my food and exactly how various components blend together to make the flavors and textures that I enjoy. And I’m becoming a lot more confident in the kitchen, leading to more experimentation.

So what’s new in your kitchens, friends?

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*It’s not completely unfounded. I already had an aversion to handling raw meat, and that was before I found out that one of Marcus’ cousins, a healthy twenty-something year old woman, died within 24 hours due to salmonella poisoning and poor meat handling practices. Whenever I handle meat I end up washing my hands no less than six or seven times (after handling the meat, after handling the packaging that wrapped the meat, after handling the tongs I used on the raw meat, etc) and that is no exaggeration. I don’t fuck around.

Recipe of the Week: Liver & Onions

I don’t really know what made me decide to look up this recipe, but someone must have mentioned it to me. I remember having it a couple of times and liking it well enough as a child, although I remember liver being pretty tough and having a very distinct taste, one that I wasn’t sure I would still care for much as an adult. But as a chronic iron-deficient anemic, I decided that the nutritional benefits of adding a little liver to my diet might be well worth the experiment.

I found this recipe, boldly titled the Absolute Best Liver and Onions. I try to avoid handling raw meat, not because I’m squeamish but because I’m paranoid (and this was before I found out that my husband’s cousin – a healthy twenty-something – died suddenly from Salmonella poisoning after eating a burger years ago), so I wasn’t looking forward to slicing up the liver as the recipe calls for. Fortunately, it came from the market already sliced (whew!), so the only time I had to physically touch it was while rinsing it under the sink; the rest of the time I used tongs.

I followed the recipe almost to the letter, except for the salt and pepper. I seasoned it with Creole seasoning blend instead. Unlike the tough as leather liver of my youth, the end result was very very tender, almost to the point of literally melting in my mouth, and this was pretty much the recipe’s downfall. I don’t like food that is too buttery and tender: smoked and raw salmon gross me out for that very reason. It still had that very distinctive liver taste, which I don’t mind that much – but Marcus was disgusted. I ate at least enough to get my daily value of iron and then gave the rest to my mother.

Conclusion: if you like liver and if you like buttery food that melts in your mouth, then you’ll like this. If not, steer clear.

Recipe of the Week: Smothered Turkey Wings

This week I combined my unholy love for turkey with my unholy love for gravy and searched the web for a suitable itis-inducing recipe. I found one for smothered turkey wings on recipezaar.com that seemed promising and while the sauce required quite a bit of extra work, it was well worth the trouble.

I made a few changes, as usual. I don’t have a high tolerance for too much salt, so I minimized it by: sprinkling only 1/2 of a teaspoon of salt on the wings rather than one tablespoon; using unsalted butter; and rather than dissolving six bouillon cubes in six cups of water (to make the broth that the recipe calls for), I only dissolved four cubes in six cups of water. 

I also only added 1/4 teaspon of garlic powder rather than the full teaspoon, and instead of chopped celery I coarsely chopped up about 5 large cloves of fresh garlic. And we were low on cow’s milk so I used two cups of breastmilk instead.

While I was apprehensive about how it would turn out (there just seemed to be waaaay too much sauce and it was very thin), it turned out pretty yummy! I pulled the meat off of the bones, tossed the bones in the freezer for making stock later, and added rice and some of the sauce to the meat. It was warm, filling, and pretty much the epitome of comfort food.