Cooking from Scratch
We’re starting to run low on mustard, but, being scratchers, rather than add it to our shopping list, we just start up another batch. Years ago, we’d buy mustard already prepared. It just seemed too complicated to make it on our own. A huge number of ingredients, cooking, grinding, pounding; who knew exactly what it entailed? We can tell you: nothing more than mixing and a bit of processing in a blender or food processor. Literally five minutes of effort.
We’re in the process of making a rather elaborate appetizer. As always, we’re not going to tell you what it is just yet, but, if it turns out, we think it’ll be impressive. For this particular appetizer, we needed just a small amount of balsamic vinegar reduction, basically a drop or two on each portion. While it may seem strange that we decided to write a whole post about making this reduction — especially if you already know how to make it — it’s a nice, basic, sauce that you can use to drizzle over tomatoes, add to sauces, put a few drops on a plate as an accent, even drizzle on strawberries or ice cream.
Continue reading “Balsamic Reduction”
Chutney. Even the word is odd, isn’t it? And we think that just about everyone will agree that the flavor is odd, too. Not bad, necessarily, just, well, … , different. To us, chutneys taste like something we can’t quite define. They’re full of flavor, some sweet, some sour, some spicy, but we can’t really pick out any particular flavor. It’s just odd to have a bit of chutney. Again, not bad, just odd, from that mix of undefinable flavors.
Continue reading “Caramelized Onion Chutney”
This is our standard pesto, the kind we make nearly every time we have enough basil leaves. It’s simple, but, while not quite traditional, it will beat pretty much any jar of pesto you find in the supermarket. Now, we know that we’ve done other versions in the past: Basil-Almond, Arugula, and Kale; if you’ve made one pesto, you’ll know pretty much how to make any of them. We thought we’d post this to show how quick and easy this is to put together.
Continue reading “Pesto Rustico”
We need to make up a little something for the coffee/social hour at church this coming Sunday, so we started by thinking about what would be good. We ultimately settled on crackers and dip, partly because we had just checked out Crackers and Dips: More than 50 Handmade Snacks, by Ivy Manning. One of the recipes called for harissa. Now, at the time, we were pretty sure we’d heard of harissa, but it wasn’t as if we had any in the cupboard, or had even seen harissa at the store. Did that stop us? No! With the power of the Internet, we learned a bit about harissa, and, thanks to theKitchn, had some idea how to make it, too.
Today’s post is a great example as to why it’s worth it to get into the habit of scratchin’ up your food. One of us just happens to love jalapeños and will eat them pretty much with everything — possibly even cake. Yeah, the other doesn’t quite understand the appeal of having your tongue practically blistered; after all, that’s what pizza fresh out of the oven is for. But, anyway, we don’t really buy the pre-pickled jalapeños at the store unless they’re on a great sale, which is maybe once a year. Today, we stopped in at the local farmers’ market to pick up some fruit to have on hand for the week, and, lo and behold, jalapeños for 50¢ a pound! That’s a great sale for fresh, organic jalapeños!
Continue reading “Pickled Jalapeños”
Everyone should know how to make mayonnaise. Really. Truly. It’s not that difficult, and it’s much tastier than that store-bought glop in a jar. Besides, if you really want to impress someone, serve something like asparagus with homemade aioli (garlic mayo). Continue reading “Scratched Mayonnaise”