RebeccaCT says "For my "menu" meal, I made a frittata with mixed greens (turnip, radish, and mustard), bread, and roasted radishes. We had it with a CT farm wine made from pears--a dry white wine. Lots of local ingredients, it tasted great!" Check out her Flickr set for more shots of her cooking, including those roasted radishes.
It's Week Seven of the 8 Step Spring Kitchen Cure, and we're getting close to the end. This last week you stocked your pantry and planned a whole meal. Were our lists for savory pantry and sweet pantry items helpful?
The idea is to make sure you're prepared to cook by inspiration, and not to always rely on cookbooks and recipes websites. But, even if you do lean on recipes for your cooking, having a well-stocked pantry will be immensely helpful. Like any craftsperson, you need the right supplies to craft something magnificent.
As we head in for a landing, let's take a moment and check in.
Thread Trace made carrot soup, based on an Epicurious recipe, but highly adapted. Three cheers! This is free-style cooking!I've noticed that there are not a lot of sauces being made out there and in our original survey of the 300 or so Cure-Takers, many people expressed a desire to learn to make basic sauces. This week we'll help you with that. If you want to forge ahead before the sauce of your dreams is posted by looking up the information elsewhere, go for it. Just promise to post your experience in the comments, below.
If you already have a healthy arsenal of sauce-making skills in your tool belt, time to learn another skill. To prepare for your dinner party in a few weeks, and your new-found more regular cooking rhythm in general, it might be helpful to learn, say, how to truss a chicken, how to make a basic risotto, or grill a steak. Leave your desired new skill in the comments, and if we don't get to posting the answer, perhaps a fellow Cure-Taker or Cure-Voyeur will jump in.
You're going to plan another meal, this time using your new skill. Faith has been doing a series of posts about cooking without recipes based on various cuisines. So far she's covered Far East Asian, Indian and Italian cooking. These might help you plan a meal based on ingredients on hand or a cuisine you favor.
- Cooking By Flavor: Asian Flavor Combinations
- Cooking By Feel: Italian Ingredients and Flavors
- Italian Template Recipe: Pasta, Meat, Greens and Cheese
- Cooking By Feel: Indian Ingredients and Flavors
So that's a lot of work: you'll need lubrication. We haven't talked about wine much, and that could be a whole separate Cure in and of itself, so we'll be brief. Basically, if you drink alcohol (skip this if you don't), pairing wines with your cooking shouldn't just be an afterthought. If you aren't comfortable with this part of meal-planning, give it a try. Head to the wine shop and talk to those knowledgeable wine folk about what you're cooking and what will complement it.
We also have a great archive of posts on The Kitchn about wine. This week, Kathryn gave us her Wine Picks for Spring and of course, Mary, our weekly wine writer, has been getting us tipsy for weeks with her recent selections, all with pairing references. How about some Australian Reislings or some Northern Italian wines from Alto Adige. More of a heart-healthy red-wine drinker? Mary writes today about Loire Valley Cabernet Franc.
Part of the graduation ritual from the Cure is having a dinner party. It's time to put the date on the calendar and send out invitations. Be modest, don't take on too much. We think anything more than a six-top can get out of control, especially if you're not a seasoned dinner-party host. Start slow. Quality, not quantity. Think about inviting guests who might help in the kitchen.
The Week 7 Assignment
- Learn a new basic culinary skill. We'll be covering sauces over the next week, but if there's another skill you'd like to learn, tell us.
- Like last week, plan another full meal, from start to finish, this time incorporating this fantastic new skill. As always, keep it as in-season as is possible.
- Read Faith's Cooking Without Recipes posts for some great ingredient, technique and recipe collections for different cuisines.
- Visit your local wine shop, talk to them about your menu, and get some wine recommendations. Buy one bottle, open it and pour. Sniff, swirl, taste. Tell us!
- Put a date on the calendar for your dinner party - ideally in the next couple of weeks when the glow of graduation is still bright - and send out invitations.
- Post photos of your work in the Kitchn Cure Flickr Pool - we need photos of what you're up to because what you're doing inspires everyone else (including me!) And the same goes for commenting: leave your questions, tips and thoughts in general in the comments below.
d1g1t1ze was at it again, this time with gargantuan purple artichokes she scored at Trader Joe's. In order to cook them, she used a beer-brewing pot!
All The Info
• Kitchn Cure: Week Six! Stocking the Pantry and Planning a Whole Meal
• Kitchn Cure: Week Five! Bread Baking Assignment
• Kitchn Cure: Week Five! Taking Stock and Reporting Back
• Kitchn Cure: Week Four! Fire Up the Stove
• Kitchn Cure: Week Three! Use What Your Mama Gave You
• Kitchn Cure: Week Two! Going Deeper - Goodbye Processed Foods!
• Kitchn Cure: Week One! Getting Started and De-Cluttering Your Food
• All Kitchn Spring Cure 2008 Posts
• The Kitchn Cure Flickr Pool Page
How To Make Perfect Bacon in the Oven
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
Find Your Style: 20 Classic to Contemporary Kitchens to Add to Your Inspiration Board
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Oh, wow, my frittata is famous! By the way, it's made great lunches, too, both cold or gently heated in the microwave. (Egg stuff really does get rubbery in the microwave if you aren't careful, doesn't it!) This is now on our permanent menu.
I'm looking forward to our farmer's market starting May 17 in New Haven. My CSA box this week has gigantic "green onions" (I'm not kidding, a yard long!), radishes, another bunch of I'm-not-sure greens, basil, and two large heads of lettuce. Salads this week!
We are trying local wines this year. Connecticut has a Wine Trail, http://www.ctwine.com/ , so we have a lot to work with. Since we don't drink much wine, it may take all year! The pear wine we had with the frittata was from Bishop's Orchards which also has a great farmstand/gourmet grocery store.
As far as sauces are concerned, I need to start at the beginning. Tips on a basic white sauce, please! I'd like to make cheese pasta that doesn't come from a box, and I'm told that the best base is a white sauce. Thanks!
those artichokes are gorgeous!
i took last weekend off of cooking and snuck off to the beach, but i'm back in the game now.
i want to make a hollendaise sauce for mother's day. any ideas where i can find the best recipe?
http://threadtrace.wordpress.com
I agree, a good sauce-covering thread would be nice! That is a skill I could definitely use...especially since I so proudly diced my first onion (properly, that is), on Monday when I made risotto.
I'm super super super lucky to have a boyfriend who owns a wine shop. I absolutely agree with the recommendation of going to a local wine shop to get advice and taste many new things. There is a level of service you will get there that will blow away the (perceived) convenience or thrift from buying at a grocery store or somewhere like Cost Plus World Market. And one more bit of advice: if you like wine, drink it daily! ;)
I'd love to hear ideas and suggestions on how to pull off a dinner party (for say... oh... six people) when you have a tiny TINY kitchen and no dishwasher or microwave. How to manage the organization of everything, timing, etc. so that food arrives on the table together and the right temperature.
Generally, I have to use my dining room table (or living room floor) as my food prep areas, as there is zero counter space in my kitchen really.
Besides that, sneaky ways of stretching meals and ingredients are always welcome, as are ways of getting protein without spending a lot of money or eating chicken and fish day in and day out (for all intents and purposes we don't consume red meat or pig in our household).
I agree with Ether Maiden. I would also like to get some tips about throwing a dinner party.
I am also interested in what can be prepared ahead of time (so I can spend more time with my guests) without the food tasting like leftovers.
Also what are some good cold appetizers for guests to graze on besides cheese and veggies and dip? I like making hot appetizers for guests to snack on but they get cold so fast.
i "freestyled" last week, just throwing in things that i had that might be good: diced tomatoes, garlic, veg broth, olive oil, red wine, capers, and some fresh basil, a top chicken and whole wheat penne. It was quite good!
I've found that with my pantry and fridge fairly well stocked, following recipes are no biggie b/c i have most of what is needed. Made a chicken w. basil-mustard sauce the other day, from a health magazine, and while i didn't have *everything* it was still good.
Set the date for my dinner party, may 30th, giving me time to plan and (letterpress) print my invitations. (Uh, i have 3 presses, and need work, so if anyone needs stationary...) Will invite two of my favorite couples.
Also, delaying the party b/c i want to see what else we learn before making my decision.
The posts re: basic flavorings for ethnic foods is fabulous. Can't wait to mess around w/ indian foods.
Sorry I'm rambling. I haven't posted in a while. BF was playing Halo 3 all weekend (not really) so the net was pretty much off limits...
Hello All! Week 8 will be all about the dinner party, so if you can just hold on a few more days, we'll let loose on the tips for entertaining in small spaces. This week, focus on learning a new skill. You're doing a great job!
We are SOOO behind for this week! Feels like we haven't been home for more than a few minutes all week and weekend long. I forget if I commented about one of these freestyle meals - here's the photo and the scoop: http://flickr.com/photos/89339434@N00/2457487084/
We haven't made it to the wine shop yet, but we will be sure to do so when we know what our dinner party menu will be. Our invitation has gone out - we're calling it a celebration of Spring's bounty. We've decided to fly a bit by the seat of our pants and go to the Farmer's Market the day of the dinner party to get really fresh produce. We'll plan out roughly what the menu will be ahead of time and include substitutions in case we can't find what we're looking for.
As for skills, I'm going to try cooking chicken in a pan again. Thanks for posting that article.
I ordered myself a NEW chef's knife (the victorinox that was recommended) and will buy an onion or two just to learn how to cut them!
Since I have never made my own sauce, I decided to use my new Dutch Oven (from the Martha Stewart collection that I saw on sale on this site) and make tomato sauce from scratch! I normally use dried herbs even if the recipe says to use fresh herbs but I this time, actually bought fresh herbs.
Tonight when I came home, I made smoky marinara sauce and turkey meatballs with whole-wheat spaghetti. It was my first time making tomato sauce from scratch and it turned out really well. I also used my new Global chef's knife which is unbelievable!! It cut through garlic like butter! I even cut an onion with ease (using the technique I learned watching the video) and the layers didn't slide around everywhere. Even though the knife was expensive, I highly recommend it! It is unbelievable!
Whenever I use ground turkey, it always seems to be really watery. Does anyone know why? The fresh herbs made a huge impact in the sauce and in the turkey meatballs. This meal taught me that good quality ingredients and good quality cooking tools make such a difference.
I've read that they inflate the weight of turkey by feeding them estrogen so they retain water. Then it comes out when you cook it. There are articles that advocate for organic turkey around Thanksgiving. I see this at my parents house then. (Turkey in the backyard when I was 5 and then killed for Thanksgiving is why I became a vegetarian--weird looking and got the connection between animals and food at an early age. Plus, it's always been dry from what I remember from the ages of 5-10 when I told my parents I was giving up meat for Lent, and they said, "OK, sometimes you'll have to cook. I always thought it funny--we weren't even that religious....)