French Onion Soup!!

That's right! I made french onion soup and it was great because it's french onion soup!

As far as I'm concerned, french onion is amazing so I'm glad I got to make it. Of course we caramelized about 3lbs of onions in 2 tbsp of butter until they were soft and light brown. We turned off the flame (fire safety first!) added about a cup of dry sherry to deglaze the pan, then turned the flame back on to cook off the alcohol. We added 2 quarts of beef stock and then reduced the soup by about 1/4. We made some toasted garlic bread, put a chunk of that into a bowl with the soup, then melted some awesome swiss cheese on top until it was soft and gooey. French onion is great. Simple as that! 

Rice Rice Rice Rice Rice!

As you might have been able to tell, this post is about Rice! Grains day included a lot of rice recipes and I ended up making a Rice Pilaf and A brown Rice Salad. 

Of the two, the Rice Pilaf was my favorite for sure. What we did was heated about a tablespoon of butter and an ounce of olive oil in a heavy pan, added some carrots, celery, and onions (a traditional mirepoix) along with a clove of minced garlic and a bay leaf. We threw in about 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and sweat the mirepoix until it was tender. Then we added 2 cups of long grain rice then let that sweat a little until it was nicely coated. We added salt, 3 cups of chicken stock and brought it to a boil.

 Finally we set the stove to low, covered it with a tight lid, and let it steam for about 15minutes before turning off the lid and letting it sit there for another 10 minutes. Then we served! It was really soft and flavorful and I could eat bowls of this and be happy. 

The brown rice salad was a little less successful.. It's a cold salad so we cooked 1 1/2 cups of brown rice to start and my partner and I may have burned it a little... whoops... I'm sure it would've been a little better if we didn't do that...

Anyways, we mixed a vinaigrette of 1 diced shallot, 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard, 1/3 tsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, and a dash of fresh ground pepper all together. Then We slowly whisked 2 tbsp extra olive oil into it to emulsify the dressing. 

The actual salad was a combination of the cooked brown rice, 1 diced pear, 1/4 cup of toasted walnut pieces, 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese, and 1/3 cup of the dressing to start as well as salt and pepper of course. It was actually a lot better than I was expected and I liked it, I probably would've enjoyed it more if the rice wasn't burned.. Next time!   

Sushi in Buffalo!!

More sushi because yes. all the time. My cousins go to school in Buffalo and recently their parents moved there too for work. The cousins work at a cute little sushi restaurant called Fuji so we decided we would go there for lunch one weekend when I was came over to visit. 

I honestly just let my cousins order because they know what good, especially since they work there. Their boss also sent a few plates to our table because apparently they love her. That works. Everything was incredibly good. Such a good sushi trip. I would definitely go there again in a heartbeat for sushi. 

Pasta Carbonara and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Starches and Carbs! Yummmm! 

So I may have used the wrong kind of pasta for Carbonara... but that's okay! First off we poached an egg which was pretty cool. Then we sweat an ounce of pancetta in a small saute pan (probably a little more than an ounce....pancetta is good..) We drained some of the fat out, poured in 1/4 of a cup of heavy cream to a simmer and seasoned with some salt and pepper. 

Then we tossed about 4 ounces of al dente pasta into the sauce pan and topped it with a tablespoon of chopped parsley. We served the pasta with the poached egg and ta-da! That was the pasta dish. The egg was really creamy and it was such a good dish.  

The garlic mashed potatoes were pretty good too. I'm always a sucker for potato dishes. My lab partner for the day peeled about a pound and a half of all purpose potatoes, and simmered them in salted water and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic until they were tender. We let them cool and threw them in a mixer with the paddle attachment until it was broken up really well. Then we switched to the whisk attachment and pureed it. We added an ounce of butter, the 1/4 cup of light cream to get the consistency just right. We also added about a head of roasted garlic to the mix too just to add some more flavor. Then salt and pepper to taste. It was so good. I'm a fan of garlic too so that was just a plus.  

Deep Fried Eggplant! (and Skillet-Steamed Vegetables)

I've had deep fried onion rings before so I figured it would be fun to try using eggplant instead. They turned out alright. A little dry but with a marinara sauce or something they would be so good! 

Just cut up one large eggplant into 1/2in slices then stick them in cold water for 5 or 10 minutes. Coat them in flour (shake off the excess), dip them in an egg mixture (we used 2 eggs beat with 1 tbsp of milk), then coat them a second time in bread crumbs. Fry them up in some hot oil for a few minutes and they're good to go! Watch them too, they cook fast and some of our slices turned really brown, really fast! 

We also made a skillet-steamed vegetable dish (mine are a little overcooked...whoops) but they were perfect for me! 

I cut up a medium zucchini and a yellow squash and heated them in a pan with 1/4 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of butter. I put a lid on it so it would steam the veggies (supposedly for 3 minutes but apparently for longer since they were a little over done...). I took the lid off and let the water reduce a little so there was a butter sauce and then I served it. Super easy, healthy, and delicious!