One of the great things about being a part of the food blogging community is seeing that I’m definitely not alone in the culinary-crazy department, and I say that with all due respect. I know I’m not the only one who could be perfectly happy spending an entire afternoon in the cooking section of a book store or in the kitchen chopping, slicing, sautéing, and searing. A few weeks back, I online-met Andrea at Cooking Books and learned we have in common an interest in food writing, cookbooks, food history, and cooking in general. She writes about her collection of books and prepares amazing dishes from them. I’m sure that our collections overlap, but recently, she’s been writing about and cooking from books by Sara Foster, Laurie Colwin, and Paula Wolfert; none of which are on my shelves. Clearly, there’s always more to learn. Or, the monkey’s always on my back, either way.
I was thrilled when Andrea invited me to write a guest post for her blog, and I’ve finally chosen a topic. I read The Taste of Country Cooking
awhile ago but hadn’t cooked from it yet, so I chose a meal from the Fall chapter to prepare and discuss. Visit Cooking Books to read all about my first experience roasting a pheasant, and enjoy all of Andrea’s fantastic posts while you’re there.*Update:Andrea has made this a new monthly feature on her site called Off the Shelf. It will showcase a different blogger and a book of his/her choosing each time. I can't wait to check in each month and find out what other people have been reading and cooking.
The basil oil I mentioned on Friday was used in Saturday morning’s breakfast. I’ve been reading the October issue of Saveur, which is all about breakfast, and I was inspired to cook up a hash and top it with fried eggs. This dish doesn’t appear in the magazine, but all the breakfasts mentioned had me craving a big morning meal. Thinking about a hash, I wanted to create something with a varied mix of vegetables and not just a potato dish.
Fennel and orange bell pepper were diced small and added to the potato and onion. I left the hash to cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes until it was very tender. The fennel, potato, onion, and pepper all took on a similar texture and the flavors were well-melded. I used a generous amount of Aleppo pepper which brought some good heat to the dish and balance to the sweetness of the onion and fennel. At the end of the cooking time, a big handful of chopped parsley brightened it all. The hash was served with a fried egg on top, a drizzling of basil oil, and some fennel fronds.
The basil oil was fresh-tasting as it enlivened the other items on the plate. The fennel was an especially good part of the hash, and it mingled very cordially with the basil flavor. I believe this is how the meal came together:
1 T butter
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t (or to taste) Aleppo pepper
1/4 cup red onion, minced
2 small, red potatoes, unpeeled and diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
1/2 orange bell pepper (or whatever color of bell pepper is in your refrigerator), diced
1 big handful parsley leaves, chopped
salt and black pepper to taste
fried eggs
basil oil
fennel fronds
-melt butter with olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat
-add aleppo pepper, onion, and potatoes, stir to combine, and allow to cook, stirring occasionally while dicing fennel and bell pepper
-add fennel and bell pepper, continue cooking while stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes, season to taste with salt and black pepper
-stir in parsley just before serving
-fry eggs as you prefer and place on top of hash, drizzle with basil oil, sprinkle on fennel fronds
-sit down to a delicious, big breakfast
I have decided to stop any and all complaints about there being no fall season in Austin. This is because I walked outside yesterday and found that my basil plants had reacted quite positively to the rain that finally fell the other day. And, thinking back to last year, my basil plants were still alive and kicking at Christmas time. For me, that’s an adequate tradeoff for the lack of fallness. This abundance of basil might have been used for a pesto, but I decided to go even simpler with it.
In Vegetable Harvest, by Patricia Wells, a few different herb oils are described and used in salad dressings, and the process for making them couldn’t be easier. Here, two cups of basil leaves are dropped into boiling, salted water for 15 seconds, then plunged into ice water, and then drained and dried in a towel. Placing the leaves in a sieve that will fit into the pan of boiling water and the bowl of ice water makes this procedure even simpler. Patricia Wells lists an exact amount of salt to be added to three quarts of boiling water because salted water helps set the color of the leaves. I note this because I often cook with less salt than is recommended, but in this case, there seems to be good evidence that the right amount matters. Once the basil leaves are dried in a towel, they join one cup of olive oil and a little sea salt in the blender. Wells suggests leaving the pureed oil as is while other herb oil recipes mention straining it. I don’t mind tiny bits of basil in the oil, so I left it unstrained.
In Vegetable Harvest, the basil oil is used in a lemon-basil dressing which is made by combining 1/4 cup of the oil with one tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice. That will be my first use of it, and I already have a few other ideas too.
