Happy Paczki Day!

Happy Paczki Day everyone! (pronounced pun-shkee)

Makes me wish I was Polish... mmmm...

So, friends and family in places like Toledo, or Buffalo - is this description of Paczki-fever in your towns accurate? Have you had a paczek before?

In Toledo, Ohio, people will start waiting in lines at 4 AM to get fresh paczki for Fat Tuesday. A local Polish grocery store called Stanley's, located on the north end of town, makes them homemade. The same thing happens also in Buffalo, NY, Cleveland or Garfield Heights, Ohio.

I also would like to see (or compete in?) this event:

A cultural phenomenon is the emergence of the "Pączki Challenge", an eating contest in which individuals attempt to race from one side of a room (non-standard) while eating as many pączki as they can before reaching the other side. The person who arrives first and has eaten the most pączki wins. Typically a ratio of 1 pączek for every 10 steps is considered competitive. Amateur competitive eater McKay Johnson holds the record at The Greater Chicago Paczki Challenge. He was able to consume 18 raspberry filled pączki before crossing the room.

Yum, I guess.

3rd Annual Commentate Pesto-fest

Usually it is Kate who blogs about food-related topics, but since this activity (and the subsequent results) is one of my favorites I'll take the reins for this post about our 3rd year of temporarily transforming our kitchen into a pesto factory. The idea is we both really like homemade pesto - it's way better than the stuff you can get in a jar, but is expensive to get such a large quantity of basil and time consuming to make it fresh when you want it. So, during the summer when basil is in season we go down to the farmers market and stock up on super-cheap basil - $1 per large bunch (we got 5 total). The rest of the directions are as follows:

• pick and wash recently purchased huge piles of basil (Thai or regular works, having the Olympics to watch helps this activity, as does a salad spinner)
• peel a few heads of garlic
• grate a big ol' block of Parmesan
  
• toast a bag of walnuts (or pine nuts) in a dry pan
• throw everything in a food processor with oil and salt

So after it's all made, we pack it into ice cube trays, muffin tins, anything else you have that will make nice portion-sized hunks that can be kept frozen. It helps to cover them with saran so the basil doesn't oxidize and turn dark green, but that doesn't matter a whole lot. Below are the results! Yummmm... It also makes for some interesting reactions from your friends when they are over and go to get a couple ice cubes from the freezer.


Naturally you should save some of the fresh stuff to eat soon, which we did with a nice picnic at an outdoor free concert we went to last weekend - the Waybacks at Los Altos' Hidden Villa.

Here's Kate enjoying some of our delicious masterpiece on the lawn,

Here's our view of the band playing a tune from our seats on the lawn (they will be at HSB 8 too!),

and the overall gorgeous setting of the Hidden Villa as the sun set over the Santa Cruz mountains.


Summer living is good here in California, hope the same is true for wherever you are!

New Blog!

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you know that I just made a new blog: Commentate's Kitchen. I mostly wanted a good central place where I could store all my favorite recipes for easy access. I've got a good chunk of them up there now, but will certainly be adding more in the future. I tried to give credit for any recipes I may have stolen (from cook books or from friends or family), but I apologize if I missed any!

I love trying new recipes so if you ever come across something spectacular, please pass it on!

Yum,
Kate

Beware the Chocolate Skittles

If any of you loyal readers might feel tempted to try these limited-edition chocolate mix skittles sometime in the future, I'd like to use this forum to recommend against it (against the advice of other bloggers). Unless of course you are some kind of crazy candy-eating maniac.

Some Summer Fruit Salad Recipes

I got really excited when I saw these in my most recent issue of "Cook's Illustrated". I made the first one for a bbq today and it's very tasty!

Cantaloupe, Plums, and Cherries with Mint and Vanilla
Combine 4 t sugar and 1-2 T minced fresh mint in a large bowl. Add 1/4 t vanilla extract. Let sit 30 seconds.
Gently toss 1/2 medium canaloupe, 2 chopped plums, 8 oz chopped cherries or blueberries with the sugar mixture. Let stand at room temp 15-30 min. Stir in 1-2 T lime juice to taste

Honeydew, Mango, and Raspberries with Lime and Ginger
Combine 4 t sugar, 2 t lime zest, and a pinch of cayenne pepper in a large bowl.
Toss 1/2 medium honeydew, 1 chopped mango, and 1-2 t grated fresh ginger with sugar mixture. Let stand 15-30 min. Gently stir in raspberries and lime juice to taste.

Nectarines, Grapes, and Blueberries with Orange and Cardamom
Combine 4 t sugar, 1 t orange zest, and 1/8 t ground cardamom in a large bowl.
Gently toss 3 chopped nectarines, 9 oz green grapes (halved) and 1 pt blueberries with sugar mixture. Let stand 15-30 min. Stir in lime juice to taste.

Peaches, Blackberries, and Strawberries with Basil and Pepper
Combine 4 t sugar, 2 T minced basil, and 1/2 t ground pepper in a large bowl.
Gently toss 3 m peaches, 1 pt blackberries, and 1 pt quartered strawberries with sugar mixture. Let stand 15-30 min. Stir in lime juice to taste.

Veggie Soup

Mmmmm. It's always a good day when I make my homemade veggie soup. That is one food I have really loved my whole life - I remember my babysitter Salty feeding it to me when I got home from kindergarten and thinking that it was just the most delicious taste ever. She didn't leave me a recipe, but I've been trying to duplicate it for the past couple years and am always happy with how it turns out. It is a little different from your average veggie soup - no beans, no noodles, rice or other starch. I usually make it a bit spicy - I keep throwing ingredients into the broth until it tastes right. Anyway, in case anyone ever wants to try it, here's the "recipe" as it exists currently:

Essentials: chicken broth (I usually make from a rotisserie chicken), garlic, onion, cabbage, celery, parsley, can of chopped tomatoes, dash of soy sauce, dash of worcestershire, whole seed mustard, dash of tabasco, black pepper, dash of balsamic vinegar

Optional but highly recommended: carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, mushrooms, potato, broccoli, peas, green beans, corn, kale, spinach, onion powder, garlic powder, basil, oregano, chipolte powder, parmesan cheese

No real technique to speak of - I put the potatoes in first if I'm using them and follow with everything else 10 minutes later. 10 minutes after that it is ready to eat (I like my veggies a little crunchy). Always best after sitting in the fridge overnight.

Thai Cooking Class

I just finished a two-week Thai Cooking class at a local high school. I had taken an Indian cooking class in Foster City about a year ago which was great fun, so I was excited to take this one in our new town, Sunnyvale.

I think I liked the Indian one a bit better - it was hands-on, and everyone in the class was able to contribute. That teacher was also very good about showing us little tricky techniques and shortcuts that really have helped my cooking. For example, I always thought that you could only use the cilantro leaves, and I learned that the stalks have just as much flavor - no use wasting them! I also learned that almost any spice in a recipe will benefit greatly from "blooming", which is cooking it briefly in a pan (either dry or with a bit of oil) before adding the other ingredients.

Anyway, the Thai class I just finished was fun, too, but it was a "demonstration" class. The teacher had a stove in the front of the classroom and cooked the dishes while we watched. We saw 7 dishes in all, including tom khai ghai soup, prawns in red curry, thai fried rice, chicken satay, salmon cakes, coconut steamed rice, and lemongrass chicken. They were all spectacularly delicious and I am happy to know how to make them. It was interesting to me how similar the ingredients in each dish were - almost everything contained curry paste, fish sauce, lemongrass, coconut milk, garlic, basil, onion, and cilantro. It's nice that these ingredients are relatively simple and easy to find (contrasted with the Indian food, which has a million crazy spices), so I think home-cooking authentic Thai might actually be pretty do-able. The main problem for me is the ubiquity of the coconut milk, which, incidentally, has 28 grams of fat per 1/6 cup serving. Pretty outrageous. There is some "light" coconut milk that I may try, which I understand is just a later pressing of the coconut, but I have been warned that the dishes won't taste the same.

Anyway, if anyone's interested, I am posting the lemongrass chicken recipe below. It is the only non-coconut milk recipe and really had a wonderful flavor. Let me know if you try it!

Lemongrass Chicken

Serves 4
2 T oil (could probably get away with less)
2 T garlic (chopped finely or paste)
3 Thai chilies, split
1 c chopped onions (white or bottoms of green onions)
2 tsp chicken bullion powder (although cubes would probably work)
1/3 c lemon grass puree (made from blending 1/2 stalk lemongrass with 1/2 c water and straining out solids)
1 c cubed boneless chicken
1/2 c chopped cilantro
6 mushrooms, quartered
2 tsp lemon juice
1.5 T brown sugar
2 tsp fish sauce (Prawn brand was recommended)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 c green onion tops

Heat oil and add garlic and chilies. Saute for a minute or so. Add onion and saute 3-5 minutes on high. Add buillion, lemon grass puree, and chicken cubes stir, and bring to boil. Add cilantro, mushrooms, lemon juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, pepper, and onion greens. Cook 3-5 more minutes. Add salt if necessary (probably won't be).

Serve with steamed rice. Yummmm!