Rendang (BRW)

• 2 hot dried red chiles [I got a big ass bag of chile de arbol. Plus I used 5 of them.  If Bittman says he's being conservative, I thought I might as well double that plus one.  I could've used more.]
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 shallots, peeled
• One 1-inch piece fresh ginger or galangal, peeled and roughly chopped [I'm not fancy enough to have galangal lying around]
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric [I did see fresh turmeric at Market Basket last weekend and I'm intrigued especially since Modernist Cuisine at Home give a good metric to sub for the powdered stuff.  Alas, not this time around.]
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 2 tablespoons tamarind paste, or the juice and zest of 2 limes [I'm also sadly not fancy enough for tamarind paste either]
• 2 tablespoons corn, grapeseed, or other neutral oil
• 1 pound boneless beef, preferably chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 cup coconut milk, homemade [right...] or canned
• Salt to taste

Process the first 8 ingredients until everything is minced.  I guess if you were adding tamarind paste, you'd hold off until everything else was processed.

Mise en place.

Heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add spice paste and cook until fragrant.

Add beef and cook until browned and covered with the sauce.  However,  I'll own up to probably not getting much browning action going on.

Pour in coconut milk, cover, and simmer until the sauce dries out, about 1 hour.

The sauce really wasn't all the dry by the time I stopped.  I don't know if I stopped because I was hungry or merely because I was running out of time.
I've heard people rave about rendang on Top Chef, but I didn't find this dish to be all that distinctive from any old curry.  Obviously, I will have to find a way more complex, bitching recipe for this someday.

Stir-Fried Chicken with Creamed Corn (BRW)

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into roughly 1-inch chunks [Given the option, I never go for white meat]
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine, dry sherry, or white wine [Might as well use sherry.  I don't think I've gotten around to getting Shaoxing wine yet.  Odd that it suggests white wine as well.  I don't see that much.]
• 2 tablespoons peanut or neutral oil, like corn or grapeseed
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger
• 1 small fresh chile, stemmed, seeded, and mince or hot red pepper flakes to taste
• One 15-ounce can creamed corn
• 1 cup fresh, frozen, or canned corn kernels
• Chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

Mise en place.  Yeah, that is literally a can of creamed corn.  Mark Bittman leads me to think that this is a fairly popular dish in Hong Kong.

Chicken marinates in the soy sauce, sesame oil, and wine while other ingredients are prepped.

Cook chicken undisturbed in oil over high heat undisturbed for about 2 minutes until the bottom browns (sort of).  Stir once or twice and cook for another couple of minutes.

Turn the heat down to medium low, add the aromatics, and stir.

Fifteen seconds later add the corn.  Cook until heated through.

Hey, I can't say that this dish isn't quite tasty, but cracking open a can of creamed corn and using that as the general basis of a "home-cooked" dish doesn't really suit my tastes anymore.  It all kind of feels a little gross, but I'm glad I gave this a shot.
Frozen dinners and those pot pies in those yellow boxes are still totally good, but I can only imagine the ingredient list for creamed corn.

Pasta with Smashed Peas, Prosciutto, and Scallions (FM)

• Salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 ounces prosciutto, chopped
• 1 bunch scallions, white and green parts separated, all chopped
• Black pepper
• 3 cups fresh or thawed frozen peas
• 8 ounces any pasta, prefereably whole wheat
• 1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, optional

Boiling pasta.  Apparently I never got around to taking a mise en place photo.

Cook prosciutto in oil over medium heat until crisp.

Add white parts of scallions (Yeah, I know they look green.).  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook for a few more minutes.

Add peas and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add some of the pasta cooking water and roughly mash peas.  Toss together with pasta, scallions tops, and pecorino and this dish pretty much amounts to awesomeness.

Chipotle Quinoa with Corn and Black Beans and Shrimp (FM)

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 (or more) canned chiles, minced, with some of their adobo sauce
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano, or 1 teaspoon dried [I used Mexican oregano since I have it and this is a Mexican dish]
• 3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 cup cooked or canned black beans, drained
• 1/2 cup corn kernels (frozen are fine)
• 1 1/2 cup vegetable stock, beer, [I had an odd bottle of Sam Adams lying around.] or water
• Lime wedges [eh]
• 8 ounces peeled shrimp, chopped

Mise en place.

Cook onion and garlic over medium heat until onion is soft.

Add chipotles and adobo and continue cooking for 1 minute.

I interpreted 2 or more as potentially double.  I found five chiles in the can and added all of them.  Held back on the adobo until the final seasoning, but I'm pretty sure I used most of it.

Add quinoa, salt, and pepper.  Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 5 minutes.

Add beans, corn, beer, and salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Stir, cover, and cook on low heat for 15 minutes.

When quinoa is almost tender, add shrimp and cover covered for an additional 5 minutes.

Quinoa is another grain I've had lying around forever, unused.  There was no clear expiration date on the package, but I had told my friends I'd  be trying to pass it off to that I had had it for years.  I mean, there's nothing wrong with how it looks or smells so it should be fine?

A very nice dish,  I tried to achieve a heat level that was quite nearly too spicy to eat, which is generally how I like spicy food.  Mission accomplished.

Bouillabaise with Fennel over Grits (FM)

• 1 cup grits or coarse cornmeal
• Salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 fennel bulbs, cored and thinly sliced, fronds roughly chopped and reserved
• 2 leeks, trimmed, well rinse, and cut into coins, white and tender green parts only [Frankly, I think that cutting the leeks into coins is counter-intuitive to the traditional means of washing leeks.  Bittman himself in HCE outlines the typical halving of the leeks almost through the root end and fanning out the layers while rinsing.  Oh well.]
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• Grated zest from 1 orange
• Big pinch of saffron, optional
• 1 dried hot chile, or pinch of cayenne, or to taste
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned are fine; drain their juice)
• About 1 pound almost any seafood (like monkfish, cod, scallops, squid, or shrimp), peeled, skinned, boned, and cut into chunks as needed
• 1 carrots or parsnips, cut into coins
• 2 cups vegetable, shrimp, or fish stock; dry white wine; or water; plus more as needed
• Black pepper

Mise en place.  Full-on except for the carrots.

Slowly whisk the water into the grits with a large pinch of salt.  Set over medium-high heat until almost a boil then simmer until the consistency of oatmeal.

I think this happened way more quickly that the suggested 10 to 15 minutes.  Whisk in 1 tablespoon of oil and season aggressively with black pepper.

Heat oil over medium heat.  Add fennel, leeks, garlic, and orange zest and cook until softened.

Add saffron and chile and cook for another minute.

Add tomatoes, seafood, carrots, and stock to just cover fish and vegetables.  I started pouring more of that boxed pinot to cover but worried about being unable to cook off the taste of alcohol with at least three cups of wine going on.

I was fine!

Bring to a boil, cover, and turn off heat.  Supposedly you're supposed to let this sit for five more minutes to cook through the shrimp, but they were already pink once this finished boiling.

Serve stew over grits.  Drape with those frilly little fennel fronds.

I think I've largely considered bouillabaise, inaccessible since it's rather delicate, but if Bittman doesn't care too much if I use all shrimp I guess I'm fine.
Grits are stupid easy to make.

Altogether the dish was good but not exactly rave-worthy.

Pasta with Seared Tomatoes and Ricotta (FM)

• Salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil, plus more as neeeded
• 4 lbs ripe Roma (plum) tomatoes, cored and halved lengthwise
• Black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 8 ounces any pasta, preferably whole wheat
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese

Blacken tomatoes over medium-high heat until deeply colored on both sides.  Or well, when they are super-super cooked as I did them.

Combine all the tomatoes and garlic and cook for a minute or so.

I forgot to reserve pasta cooking water to loosen the sauce, but the tomatoes' juices were runny enough.  Basically toss the pasta, basil, and ricotta in with the sauce.

Pretty satisfying dish for such simple ingredients.  I cooked another pasta dish from Food Matters just tonight that was great as well.  Really a roll here with this cookbook again.  The dish has everything it needs.

Simplified Cassoulet with Pork and Kielbasa (CATKTV)

Chicken

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup table salt
• 10 (5-6 ounce) bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, trimmed and skin removed [Oops, guess I screwed up a little by leaving the skin on]

Beans

• 1 pound dried flageolet or great Northern beans, picked over and rinsed [Great Northern]
• 1 medium onion, peeled plus 1 small onion, minced
• 1 medium head garlic, outer papery skind removed and top 1/2 inch sliced off plus 2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Ground black pepper
• 6 ounces (about 6 slices) bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 (1-pound) boneless blade-end pork loin roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 (14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 large sprig fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
• 1/2 pound kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch slices

Croutons [Although I didn't bother)

• 6 slices high-quality white sandwich bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 

Dissolve salt and sugar in 1 quart of cold water in gallon-sized bag and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Not all the salt and sugar got dissolved and the chicken was still pretty frozen, but I don't think it hurt the dish THAT much.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels afterward.

Mise en place minus the beans.

Practically the same picture as the previous entry.  Except no bay leaves, less water, the onion's hole, and there's some pepper.  Cook until almost tender, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.  Drain beans and discard onion and garlic.

Fry bacon until it's just beginning to crisp and most of the fat is rendered.  After that, dump half in with the beans and reserve the rest on a paper-towel-lined plate.

Cook chicken until lightly browned.  Start skinned side down or since I screwed up skin-side down.

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat and cook pork until lightly browned.

Add onion and cook until softened.

Add minced garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, and pepper and cook until fragrant.

Deglaze with chicken broth and wine.  I sort of did this in stages since I didn't start the beans until later for some stupid reason.  I guess that reason would be not reading through the whole recipe and making the correct logical decision.

Submerge the chicken, bring to a boil, and simmer covered for 40 minutes.  Uncover and cook under pork and chicken are fully tender, 20 to 30 minutes more.

Gently stir in beans, kielbasa, and reserved bacon.  Season to taste.  (Apparently, if I had brined the chicken right, I wouldn't have needed to season with salt as aggressively as I did.) I guess this would be the right time to top with the croutons I didn't make and bake until they were deep golden brown.
When I first made this dish, back before the blog, a previous roommate had said this dish was the best thing he had ever put in his mouth.  I declared the dish a bit too rich for me though still good.  I'm not sure I got as walloped by one serving of this as the first time, but it's still rather more than I'm comfortable with eating multiple times in a day.  It's typically made with duck confit but that's hella expensive and would probably push this even further over my limits.

Good dish, I figure, if one really appreciates French food way more than I do.