andy gillette

I went to bed thinking about food.  I woke up thinking about food.  I’ll be cooking food basically all day today.  I’m making dinner for a little dinner party at one of the neighbor’s homes this evening.

The menu:
Fresh Corn Soup with Charred Poblanos and Feta
Pasta Torte (like somewhere between quiche and pasta carbonara)
Carmelized Scallops with Chile Cream
Coconut Lime Cake

I’ve been working on the prep list all morning.  It’s fairly daunting.  We’re going to try a little live blogging experiment, so I will update you as the day progresses.  Right now, it’s time to take a shower and then go bake a cake.

My Vrry Long Prep List

[update: 2:42PM]

My cakes are done!

So now that I’ve got some time before I need to start cooking main courses, here’s the quick rundown of how to make it.

You need:
2 limes
1 cup sweetened shredded cocnut
1 1/4 cup self-rising flour
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 sticks of butter
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Zest the limes and set zest aside.  Juice the limes into a medium bowl and add the coconut.  Let that sit for about an hour to soak up all the flavor.
Heat the oven to 325.  Sift the flour into a big bowl and then mix in all the other ingredients (including the coconut and the lime zest).  Divide it evenly between to cake pans and bake for 35ish minutes.
Now they should look something like the above picture.  Let them cool for a minute and then turn them on a cooling rack to cool completely.  Meanwhile, make ICING!

You need:
2 limes
2 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Take a really sharp paring knife, or a potato peeler, and peel off long skinny curlicues of zest.  Set those aside for a minute and prepare to be kind of bored and annoyed.  Using the paring knife, take off all of the white stuff left on the limes and segment them.  Once that’s done, squeeze any remaining juice out of the lime carcasses into a bowl with the segments and sift the sugar over the top.  Stir it gently (so you don’t ruin your perfect little segments) and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until the segments turn into gooey lime candy-like stuff.
Ice the top of one cake.  Put the other cake on it, and ice just the top of that one too.  Now put your beautiful curly zest on top and sitck it in the fridge.

mmmmmmmmmm

I also used the time while the cakes were baking to make the garnish for my soup course.  I charred, peeled, seeded, diced and fried a couple of big chiles and then fried up some fresh mini tortilla chips in the reserved oil.

[update 4:29PM]

I just put the pasta course in the oven.

pre-baking

I don’t have time for details, but it’s basically a crust made of mashed potatoes filled with angel hair pasta and bacon(!) covered with a really rich eggy custard and topped with basil leaves.  It’s got to bake for 45 minutes, and then I’ll post some pictures of the final product.  Meantime, I’ve got to prep everything for the scallops.

[update 8:18PM]

It got so hectic once people started showing up that I didn’t have time to take pictures or write anything before I had to put food on the table.  The pasta dish that I was rooting so hard for came out pretty whatever, but the soup was so damned good it made up for it.

There’s a lot of stuff to blog about today.  Lincoln and Darwin are both celebrating birthdays from the grave, and intelligent people everywhere are celebrating the anniversary of the publication of ‘Origin of Species.’  And more pedestrian bloggable phenomena like Google joining the ranks of companies laying people off and the Republicans trying to derail Obama’s stimulus package, make for all sorts of newsworthy writing.  But I don’t want to talk about any of that.

Last night, after having my mind blown by L O S T (again) and before watching Joaquin Phoenix being a total dick on Letterman, I was making Skittle vodka (as followers of the Tumblr already know).  Tonight they are all ready, and I’m ready to start my taste test.

A couple of things before we begin: I have already been drinking for a little while (surprise!) and I normally hate sweet and/or fruity drinks.  When I’m drinking liquor I pretty much only ever drink vodka soda, which is about the least flavorful drink you could imagine.  So I’m thoroughly expecting to not enjoy this experience.

First up: Strawberry.  Most notable right off the bat is how smooth it is.  It’s not nearly as sickly sweet as I anticipated.  In fact, it went down way too quickly to note much else.

Next: Grape.  Though it’s very similar to the strawberry, it is remarkably different enough in flavor.  I have always kind of suspected that Skittles (or most fruit-flavored candies, for that matter) were “flavored” in the same way Kool-Aid is.  That is, it’s a lot more about a different color than a different taste.  But these first two were definitely recognizable as their respective flavors, which, oddly enough, in no way resemble the flavors of the fruits they represent.  I’ve always wondered about that.  Take watermelon, for example.  The flavor of watermelon candy is like a universally agreed upon thing that has absolute nothing in common with the flavor of actual watermelon (yeah, I’ve been drinking, what of it?).

And finally: Lemon-Lime.  This is the only combo in the line-up, featuring equal parts yellow and green Skittles.   This one is decidedly more intense.  As soon as I opened it the smell of lemon-lime with almost overwhelming.  So is the taste.  It’s also got a kind of chemically aftertaste that definitely leaves something to be desired.

Ugh.  Okay, I’m off.  Going to go get proper drunk.  I’ll come back tomorrow to finish this post off.

[post-script: I did not come back to finish this post off.  I slept ALL DAY yesterday.  I may have gone a bit too far after the Skittles thing.]

I was cleaning up around my apartment this morning and I noticed that I still had all these peppers left over from cooking dinner the other night.  I was trying to figure out ways to use them up, so after playing around in the kitchen a little bit I came up with an awesome pasta recipe that I think would make a lovely dinner for two (presuming you’re the type of person that is looking for really easy ways to impress members of the opposite sex with your kitchen skills).

I’m gonna eat UR HAIR!!!!

Angel Hair with Garlic and Peppers (for 2)

1/2 a package of angel hair pasta

6-8 cloves of garlic

4 sweet cherry peppers (from a jar)

2 pepperoncini (from a jar)

3-5 tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup white wine (or sauterne cooking wine)

salt and pepper

parmesan (optional, but cheese comes in blocks, not cans you cheap bastard)

Put a pot of salted water big enough to fit your pasta in on to boil.  Put the olive in a medium skillet on medium heat.  Peel and crush the garlic clove (I usually use the broad side of my knife for crushing) and throw them in the oil.  While you let the garlic simmer for a couple of minutes chop the tops off of the peppers and pepperoncini and slice them in half.  Scoop out the seeds and then halve them all again (that’s quarters now, in case you weren’t paying attention).  Add the peppers and pepperoncini to the garlic and sautee it for just a minute.  When the peppers look like they’re starting to cook, add the wine.  Let it simmer.
Your water should be boiling right about now, so add the pasta and cook it for about 5 minutes.  Don’t worry about the peppers and garlic.  They’re simmering and that’s all they need to do.  If the wine cooks off to fast, turn the heat down a little bit and add more wine.  You don’t want it to be wet, but you don’t want it to burn either.  Ideally, by the time the pasta is done you should have cooked off almost all of the wine.
Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot.  Dump the whole pan of garlic and peppers into the pasta and get as much of the oil and juice out of there as you can.  Toss it all around.  Salt and pepper to taste and serve topped with parmesan if you’d like.