penitent, turbulent, multiplex!

I had a dinner party just this past weekend, and I stole this recipe at the last minute from here, with just a few almost insignificant modifications. It was absolutely incredible, if I do say so myself.

You need:
- Some fennel/anise/finocchio (1-2 bulbs)
- Softened butter (like, left out at room temperature for 3-4 hours)
- salt
- pepper
- white wine
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- parchment paper

Chop up the fennel into two-finger-size pieces, and slice the garlic. Toss it all into a big bowl, and throw in 1 to 2 tablespoons of butter, as well as salt and pepper to taste. Mix well with hands until the butter and spices are evenly distributed.

Put the parchment paper onto a baking sheet, throw the fennel on top of it, and make a pouch for it out of the paper. Pour a full glass of white wine over the whole thing, and then wrap the fennel up in the paper. Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour.

I made about 2 1/2 big bulbs of fennel, and I had to use two baking sheets to avoid crowding the pouch. So watch out for that.

If you’re looking for some new ideas for contorni, give this one a try!

I stole this recipe from someone a few years back, and I’ve since added a few things. I went backpacking with some friends this past weekend, and I made about a kilo of this stuff for breakfast. My comrades made fun of me (“how are we going to eat all that?” etc.) but by the end of the second day, it was almost all gone! (Mind you, I had a lot to do with that.)

If you have 5 minutes and some very basic ingredients, you can make this wicked snack.

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Just made this tonight, and I want to get it out of my head and onto something comparatively persistent before I forget it.

Ingredients:

• 1 stalk of rhubarb, finely chopped
• 1 leek, coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon (or more) brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

What to do:

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan at medium-high.
2. Throw in the leeks, cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the balsamic, the rhubarb, and the sugar. Cook for 10 more minutes or so, uncovered.

That’s it. Serve over your favorite poultry — I put a tablespoon of the stuff over a chicken breast and it was awesome-sauceome.

If you’re not worried about health/calories, drop 1 tablespoon of olive oil and replace with some butter, and add up to 4 tablespoons of brown sugar.

Thanks to this site for the basic idea.

Tonight I tricked myself into thinking that I had this recipe archived here already before I started cooking, and had the oil smoking in the pan before I realized that I never got around to writing it down. Thankfully I managed to figure it out again. I don’t want to make that mistake again, so here goes…

What you need:
Brussels sprouts (however many you feel like making)
Smallish cooking onion
x cloves of garlic, where the magnitude of x is a function of how much you like garlic
Soy sauce
Balsamic vinegar
Walnuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts, sliced almonds, or some other seed or nut that suits your fancy

What do to:

1. Slice the sprouts thinly. I usually cut the asses off (well, what else would you call them?) and then slice them lengthwise into thirds. Keep all the little leaves that fall off as well.

2. Mince or crush the garlic, and thinkly slice or mince the onion.

3. Coat the bottom of a skillet or other thick pan with oil and heat it at medium high until the oil is almost smoking.

4. Toss the sprouts in, making sure that there’s enough room so that they all have their surfaces touching the bottom of the pan. I usually have to do a couple of batches to cook all the sprouts that I bought.

5. Every couple of minutes or so, stir them around so that they blacken sort of evenly on both sides.

6. When they start to soften a bit, toss in the onions and the garlic, and cook until those are getting soft or browned.

7. At the last moment, splash roughly equal amounts of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar into the pan and stir a bit so that it reduces. Throw in the seeds/nuts after the liquids thicken, stir it around one last time, and you’re good to go.

I’ve probably stolen this recipe off of the net from somewhere, but it’s been so long that I can’t remember where from. It’s most likely the first or second hit in the Google search results for ‘blackened brussels sprouts’, but I’m too lazy to check… credit goes to the folks who made this one up, it certainly wasn’t me.

I invented this broth last week when Suz and I managed to ping-pong colds off of one another. Your typical bland chicken broth doesn’t do much for me, so I decided to improvise and I was pretty surprised with the results.

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