French Peasant Beets

A coworker of mine recently purchased a Rebel T2i, same camera I have, but chose to get the 50mm lens rather than the standard 18-55mm, the kit lens, and I have been seething ball of jealousy since seeing his first few pictures. Such clear quality in such low light! Every picture I took of these beets was met with disgust and so, after a quick check of my bank account, I gave in to desire and ordered a 50mm lens for myself. Can't wait!

No 50mm lens yet, but Picasa has instagram-style editing now!

For now, however: last Christmas I was given the Food52 cookbook, "140 winning recipes from exceptional home cooks" - a collection of winning recipes from Food52's weekly contests. Have you visited Food52 yet? Please take the time to pop over now. Amanda Hesser, of the immense and amazing The Essential New York Times Cookbook, and Merrill Stubbs, who assisted Amanda with the ENYTC, created Food52 first as a vehicle to create the "first crowd-sourced cookbook in 52 weeks" but it has since grown to a community where cooks of all caliber share recipes, tips, debate food news - there's even a real-time hotline to help you along any recipe's journey. Seriously, check it out.

Ratatouille-esque Gratin

 

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas (if that's your thing.) My gifts all had a general theme - get your ass in the kitchen - but there are no complaints from me as I now have a new covered casserole, oblong baking ramekins, recipe card index, and three beautiful, saliva-inducing cookbooks for Moroccan, Thai and Chinese cuisine. They are from the "Food Of" cookbook series, the same as my Indian cookbook and, just like that one, they are fantastic. Large (11.5 x 9in), with fantastic pictures, detailed cultural and culinary histories sprinkled throughout and, of course, inspiring recipes; there is a pickled pig's feet recipe in the China cookbook I am particularly eager to try. And carrot soup with couscous from Morocco. And deep-fried quail form Thailand. As you can see I have been going through sensory overload reading through these books deciding which recipes to try first; it is exhausting.

Really Simple, Really Good, Homemade Cheese

A month (maybe two) ago I was exploring mexico in my kitchen and came across the Mely's entry for homemade Mexican cheese or queso fresco. Two thoughts immediately popped in my head: "Damn, I love queso fresco" and "I've made cottage cheese before, so let's go." The first attempt was fantastic, with me managing to make a cheese ball and soft ricotta-style cheese from the same gallon of milk. I felt like a superstar - or almost, because I used white vinegar to separate the curds and whey and probably used too much: the cheese ball definitely had a vinegar aftertaste that increased the older it grew. (Just a few days, no aging cheese here.) No worries, because the next time I used lemon juice and was all ready to make some paneer (which is basically the same as queso fresco, in that they both are simple unaged cheeses; paneer tends to not have salt added), but it was not to be. The lemon juice just wasn't making my milk separate and no amount of reheating & resting saved it. So we were even: Cheese 1 - Sarah 1.