An accidental find, unusually good

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blogging, inspiration, photography, post ideas, postaday, writing, writing prompts

My little one ordered escargots last night, and actually liked them and would have ordered a second serving had her entrée took a second longer to arrive.

Escargots. Would she have eaten them had they come in their shells?

Could it be that all these years of introducing her to new and unusual foods has finally paid off and she is now becoming a less picky and a more adventurous eater, who will stay away from the junks that she normally lives on?

Her brother, however, wasn’t interested in venturing outside his comfort zone, ordering once again, steak and frites, his other choice food next to burgers. This one’s addiction to junk food is even worse, I think. If I don’t cook or serve any meat, he would rather eat chips all day, sigh … (No picture for the steak, bur we all know what it looks like.)

The husband was another “non-venturer,” staying with the tried and true classic beef bourguignon that in hindsight I should have ordered instead.

Beef Bourguignon served with buttered noodles. I ate my share of it even though I didn’t order it.

Instead of the one I did, which on paper sounded amazing, and upon arrival did look amazing, but when I started slicing into it and took my first bite, I also took a whiff of the white anchovy fillets garnishing the dish, and it immediately turned off my appetite for it. When will I outgrow my childhood aversion to fish?

Veal Schnitzel with white anchovy fillet. Looks good and tastes good, if not for the anchovy. But the hubs liked it, and loved the anchovy, so he had his share of it even though he didn’t order it.

Thankfully the couple of appetizers the hubs and I shared, and the warm, fragrant baguette that came in a paper bag (oh, sooo … good that I forgot to take a picture, but we all know what a baguette looks like), were there to save the day for a starving mom.

Sweet Corn & Bacon Tart. How could you go wrong with corn & bacon? I’ll definitely try making this at home.

Calamars Frites. One of our favorites, but one I have trouble cooking at home, so 9 out of 10 times we’ll order this whenever we eat out.

Plus of course, there was always too much roasted chicken on the daughter’s plate, and she was looking for takers, but by that time everybody had enough.

Roasted Chicken. It started with half a chicken. It was half a chicken at the end of the meal. Did she even eat any?

Aquitaine Bar à Vin Bistrot is highly recommended by this reviewer, if not for anything else, for the baguette alone. The service was above par, the prices fair, and the wine selection will not leave you wanting.

Most accidental finds usually don’t end up so well, but this one did. We really went to Legacy Place for P. F. Chang’s, but without a reservation the wait was 1-2 hours, we were told. Utter craziness! Who could wait that long when you were starving? Luckily for us, Aquitaine was just around the corner.

If you happen to be in the area,
Aquitaine Dedham
500 Legacy Place
Dedham, MA 02026
(781) 471-5212

***

Our eating pleasure was amplified perhaps by the scene playing in front of us. An older couple seemed to be on a date night. I have to be careful here. I never said they were old, just older. I learned my lesson from the admonishment I received from a co-worker. I was describing someone as “old, old, like 60″ and she turned to me and said in her gravest voice,”Thanks a lot, I just turned 60!” I was embarrassed beyond relief. How could have I been so uncivil!

I would describe the couple as in their mid-70s. A good-looking couple and very happily attached it appeared; they were deep into each other practically the whole dinner. Except for one brief moment when she took a phone call, and only after inquiring with him if it was alright for her to do so.

Her hair was dark and long, with a few flecks of grey, which reminded me of my grandmother’s that stayed dark even as she entered her late 60s. She (the woman) would bring his hand every now and then to her lips. He would tear pieces of baguette and buttered them to give to her. It was just so touching and lovely to watch.

I would imagine that they would go home right after dinner, declining dessert at the restaurant for they knew they had some apple brown betty left from her baking yesterday. He would make her a cup of tea, with a touch of honey, just the way she likes it. Then he would join her on the porch, to enjoy the blue moon, I would imagine. And then she would shiver just a little in the cool night breeze and he would gallantly draw her big overflowing shawl just a little tightly around her petite frame.

She would remind him that the grandchildren would come for a visit next weekend and asked what he thought of her plan to make homemade noodles and dumplings. And he would say it was a brilliant idea, for he too loves noodles and dumplings. Wouldn’t the young ones enjoy helping with that, he would excitedly agree.

He does love watching and hearing her and the children busy together in the kitchen. She is happiest when her hands are occupied and the children adore her and her cooking. There’s no other place he would rather be than the room his wife of fifty years is in, especially when the grandchildren are in it, too.

I would imagine that she, too, feels the same way about him. Because it would be too sad if that’s not the case and I wonder whether they’re still sexually active or not …

“Quit staring and being so obvious … and purge the junk out of your mind!” my husband whispered. Er … what? I may have been staring and I probably was being obvious, but junk in my mind? I beg to differ and how did he know?

Onions, can you live without them?

Tags

food, onion bhajis, onion recipes, onions, photography, recipes, story, stuffed onions, vegetarian

Bet you can’t. How many times do you start a recipe with sautéed onions? There, I rest my case. 

But onions don’t have to be just there to garnish or to give a taste to a dish; they can be the main ingredient, the star of the dish. In expert hands (not my hands), onions can turn from merely an ingredient into a meal. Think about an appetizer like onion rings or a soup like French onion soup. Undeniably onions play the lead role there.

Thinking along those lines, I posed a challenge to myself when I saw onions on sale for $1 a bag. Making a meal consisting of mostly onions. These self-imposed challenges have become recurring events in my kitchen. I’m not complaining, I actually love them. If recipes don’t turn out well, they’ll be forgotten and you’ll never hear of them. But when they do turn out well, I declare myself the winner and collect the trophy. An imaginary one, but it’s real. In my head.

So, once again I judged myself the winner of this particular challenge. Yay! Look at these onion recipes and tell me, can you live without onions?

Stuffed Onions

This is another Ottolenghi recipe. Is there any other who can do with vegetables as well as he? I followed the directions pretty much, except where I noted.

3 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups white wine
4 large onions
3 small tomatoes
3/4 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
2/3 cup feta, crumbled
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
Butter for greasing

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Prepare a buttered oven-proof dish.
3. Put the stock and white wine into a medium-sized saucepan, bring up to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer.
4. Trim off the top and bottom of the onions, then cut them in half lengthways. Remove the skin and carefully take out most of the insides, keeping only two or three layers of the outer skin of each onion intact.
5. Carefully separate the outer layers from each other and place, a few at a time, in the simmering stock. Cook for three to four minutes, until just tender, then drain well and leave to cool slightly. Repeat until all the onion has been blanched. Turn off the heat and keep the stock on one side.

Note:
Somehow I found it hard to separate the onion layers without tearing them, so I did this instead:

I cut a sliver of the onion on one side, then plunge the whole onions in the simmering stock. And with a pair of tongs, pull off the layers as they loosen, much like what you do when you make stuffed cabbage. Much easier. And you get to use wider pieces of onion for rolling as well as the tender inner layers. The outer layers tend to be tough.

Also, I’m not sure how much flavor the wine really added to the dish, so I’m thinking you can do without. If there’s one criticism I have of Ottolenghi is that sometimes I feel his list of ingredients esoteric. This time it isn’t, just wasteful on the wine. You’re better off drinking the wine as you’re cooking. 🙂

6. Finely chop about one-third of the insides of the onions (About 1½ cups of choped onions.) The rest you will need to keep and use up in another dish.
7. To make the stuffing, use a coarse cheese grater to grate the tomatoes into a large bowl (you will be left with most of the skin in your hand; discard it). Add breadcrumbs, feta, parsley, oil, garlic, spring onion, chopped onion, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Note:
The only thing I did differently here was that I sautéed my chopped onions first.

8. Fill each onion skin with stuffing. Pull the sides together so that you end up with a fat cigar shape. Place seam-side down in the buttered dish.
9. Pour over about ⅓ cup of the stock, just enough to cover the bottom of the dish.
10. Bake for about 40 minutes, until soft and lightly coloured, with the stuffing bubbling. If the stock dries up during cooking, add a little more. After 40 minutes, take out onions, drizzle a little honey and dot with butter, return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes. (This part is all me. I like that caramelized look on the onions.)

Onion Bhajis

So, so delicious! This one is a must try, if you don’t mind deep-frying. Along with the stuffed onions and basmati rice, these bhajis make for a perfect vegetarian meal.

4 cups thinly sliced onions
1 green chile (optional), seeded and thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped cilantro (or parsley if you don’t like cilantro)
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp curry powder
Salt & pepper
2/3 cup besan flour (aka garbanzo bean flour)
1/3 cup rice flour
1/2 cup water

1. Mix all the ingredients together. It’s okay if mixture appears dry. You’re not making a batter, you just want everything to bind together so it doesn’t fall apart as it fries. I like mine loosely formed and irregular-shaped.
2. Drop by the spoonfuls into hot oil and fry until golden brown, flipping a couple of times.
3. Drain on paper towels. Served with chutney or raita.

Onion & Smoked Gouda Pizza

Everybody was so good eating the vegetarian meal without complaint that I decided to reward them with a pizza. Still with onions. But it’s a pizza, that’s all that matters.

Pizza dough
2 medium onions, sliced thinly
5-6 slices bacon
2 cups shredded smoked Gouda (or mozzarella, if you prefer. I just happened to have gouda.)
Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
Parsley

1. Preheat oven to 425° F.
2. Chop bacon slices and fry to render some of the fat. Drain and discard fat.
3. Sauté onions until translucent but not brown.
4. Roll your dough, and start layering the toppings, starting with the cheese, onions, bacon, and tomatoes. You can sprinkle a little more cheese on top.
5. Bake for about 15 minutes. Sprinkle top with parsley as soon as it comes out of the oven.

***

Speaking of onions, it reminds me of the time I was expecting my second child. Somehow the smell of onions made me sick, sicker than my morning sickness sick. We ordered in one night, fried rice from a nearby Chinese restaurant. Of course I requested no onion. When my husband came back with the food, I saw that he had been charged $3 for the “no onion.” I started bawling! Yes!

I told my husband to go back to the restaurant and demand the $3 back, even though he kept telling me not to sweat it. After all, it was only $3. You know the expression “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”? Well … obviously whoever coined that had not met a slighted pregnant woman. He did get his $3 back, and an apology.

I’m embarrassed thinking about it now. Whatever compelled me to react in such a manner? Must be hormones.

Onion plants, by the way, take a long time to mature. From seeds to bulbs, it can take up to 8 months. I know because I planted them a couple of years ago. I started the seeds in January and the onions didn’t get into harvest size until August. That’s the reason I haven’t planted onions ever again. But now that I’m talking about it, I feel like giving it another go. I’ll look into a fast maturing variety, if there is one. Does anybody know?