Lots of Little Things

It's once again been a few days since my last post. There are times when I don't post because I just haven't made any food. This was the case for much of the spring. Then there are times when I don't post because I just haven't made any one thing that's post-worthy, despite making lots of relatively uninteresting little things. This has been one of those weeks, so today's post is focused on those little things, and on making them as interesting as possible.

Indian Spanish Tortilla, cooking

I'll start with my lunch for this week, an Indian-Spanish tortilla. (If I haven't mentioned this before, I mostly cook for myself; so make enough to eat lunch and dinner for 4-5 days at a time. It's a great incentive to make things that are tasty, but the cost of failure [i.e., eating bad food for 4-5 days] is high).  One of my favorite easy lunches is a Spanish tortilla sandwich -- slices of a potato/onion/egg concoction sandwiched on a nice roll. This week I decided to put an Indian spin on that, adding some cumin seeds, curry leaves and nigella seeds to the oil (3/4 cup or so, later drained off) before cooking the potatoes (1.25 pounds, diced to 1/4"). I also added some kashmiri chili powder to the eggs along with some salt and black pepper. A delicious spin on a classic dish.

Yesterday I celebrated Canada Day with some Canadian and American friends, and brought a couple of nice summer desserts. I knew they had s'mores planned for the kids, so I made my own vanilla-flavored marshmallows to appease the adults at the party too. Marshmallows are actually pretty easy to make, with the right gear and a little patience. I just boiled 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water and 2/3 cup corn syrup until it reached 240 degrees. I then poured this into my stand mixer with the whisk, where I had already placed 3 packets of gelatin powder into 1/2 cup cold water to soften for 15 mins. These were beaten together at high speed for 15 mins until the mixture was firm, fluffy and, well, marshmallow-like. Then the white mixture gets poured into a 13 x 9" pan lined with foil and non-stick spray to set. Finally, I sliced them into small squares, which was tossed in a blend of corn starch and powdered sugar to keep them from sticking to each other. No pictures, unfortunately, but they disappeared pretty quickly.

Overly dramatic shot of watermelon
and wine concoction

The marshmallows were for later in the evening, though. We needed a refreshing afternoon treat, too, so I made a couple sorbets. Watermelon sorbet is super easy and delicious: just a bunch of watermelon pureed with sugar and some lime juice, and a tiny bit of vodka and stabilizer to improve the texture. I also made a bit of lemongrass-lime leaf sorbet, by steeping lemongrass (3 stalks) and lime leaves (5) in a sugar syrup, to which I then added the juice of one lime and some stabilizer. Again, tasty. In a possibly ill-advised from a purist's standpoint, but still delicious, move the watermelon sorbet was incorporated into a glass of wine with some basil, shown here as the sun was setting.

Stay tuned for more summer treats!