It has been an adjustment learning how to cook again. It always surprises me how, whenever traveling or living abroad, one's palate and style of cooking adapts quite quickly. In this case, however, my actual abilities have yet to catch up. Here are some of the more successful dishes to come out of this emerging Edinburgh kitchen, however.
I made some pesto bread via Mmm is for Mommy. In my haste to devour, I forgot to take pictures after it baked. I love the concept, but next time I'd like to do it with a more crispy/chewy bread recipe.
This is my go-to, eggs in a basket. Easy as (or rather, quite a bit easier than) pie. Take a piece of bread and an egg. Poke out a little circle in the middle of the bread. Give this little circle of bread to the squalling baby nearby. Place the hole-y bread in a preheated, oiled frying pan. Crack the egg into the bread-hole. Let fry on medium heat for 2-3 min. Flip and let cook for a remaining 2 or so min. Voila! Easy-peasy. I love runny egg yolks..................... (this represents my dribbling face at the moment).
This is a roasted carrot and goat cheese salad atop some watercress and arugula. Quite simple: wash and cut the carrots (I don't peel mine), toss inolive oil, thyme, and s/p and roast for 20-30 min. The flavors here are great: tangy, creamy cheese; mellow, sweet carrots; spicy, crunchy salad. Yum.
This is some roasted pak choi (aka baby bok choy) and Brussels sprouts. Similar method: trim and chop the greens, toss in olive oil, s/p, sage, and a teensy bit of both honey and vinegar, then roast for around 30 min. I both toss and roast in the same 9x13 pan. One pre-emptive step against dishes for me, a giant step for my war-zone kitchen. Okay, I'll stop with the terrible mash-up of 1960's catch-phrase and, well, er, me. But it was quite tasty, specially with some tatties (what taters are known as here).
This is a spontaneous learning experience for Ber, who usually hangs out with me in the kitchen. I was cutting potatoes and I made a little star potato stamp for him. Then we stamped tomato sauce onto a paper towel. Yeah, I'm what's known as a hipster mom. snark. But it WAS fun (and did not involve harmful plastics or unfair trade practices, insofar as I am aware).
These are some persimmon chips, via TheKitchn. I sprinkled them with a bit of curry powder and sugar and a teensy bit of salt. YUM! Just slice the persimmons yay-thin and bake them at a high temp until they are toasty. (I always have a wee chuckle about persimmons though... they're sold here under the name "kaki," which is a diminutive German term related to "kacken"... tehehehehe).
Sadly, much of everything else I have cooked has been kind of gross. But I have my eye on a few recipes that promise to change that... so stay tuned. :)
These pictures are scrumptious! I like the ideas you've posted. I really want to try the persimmon chips!!! ...and everything else, but I can't imagine what the persimmon chips taste like. And I want to know what those delicious-looking things taste like.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carlykins! It's quite hard to describe what persimmon chips (or persimmons, for that matter) taste like. The texture reminds me a bit of a dry-ish tomato (I'm talking about the "fuyu" variety, the "hachiya" is much more juicy). The flavor is reminiscent of apple, but somehow more aromatic, like honeysuckle. They can be reallllly sweet and I wouldn't eat them alone. But like this they're quite good!
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