Dolmathes, Beurre Blanc/Rouge, Lekakh (Honey Cake), and Chili

Well, it seems it's been a while since I have posted anything about cooking, and that's not because I haven't been doing it. Tout au contraire! AW! CRAP! I just got capsaicin up my nose! No joke, I just picked my nose after I made some chili with a jalepeno in it. That was a rookie move! Most things I don't have the pictures for, but I'll tell you the happenings.


So . . . those aren't my dolmathes, but Jenna and I made some recently and they turned out pretty well. See below the fold for more.

We made the Dolmathes late the night before Thanksgiving and each brought some to our respective dinners. Apparently they were a hit. I thought they were a little dry. So I think next time I make them I will put more oil and lemon into the stuffing. I also think I am going to find some larger role for the Labna to play. Dolmathes are really good when dipped in this tangy yogurt/cheese. It's somewhat like ricotta, but a with more of a yogurt bite to it. I would like to make some kind of dipping sauce out of it though.

We stuffed the grape leaves with a basmati rice, mint, scallion, cumin, cardamom, greek yogurt/cheese (Labna) and garlic mixture. Then we steamed them for about 40 minutes in a rice cooker.



This is some chicken I made for Jenna. All I did was seer the chicken and cleaned the pan out and made the buerre blanc. We had a bit of it left over so I put it on the rice too. I kind of messed up on the buerre blanc, though. It should have been thicker, I think. It still tasted good.

I also made some steaks for Chris and Dave a while back with some buerre rouge. That was really good. Even Chris, who doesn't like onions, liked it (though it is made with shallots, which are infinitely better than onions, in my opinion).


Ginger being worked on for something delicious.


Mixing bowls - if you couldn't tell.

I also made a honey cake a while back. I never reported back on how that turned out. I really could tell the difference between the cake I ate right when it was done, and the cake I ate when it was aged for a few days. Much better. But there was a slight problem - I burned it. I ended up cutting about half the cake off so I could eat what was in the center - hence there being no picture of the finished product.

We have a joke in my family about my mom always burning things. I must have gotten that gene. I just hope I don't end up burning cutting boards like her (love you, Mom!).



Tonight is for Chili. It's been snowing the past few days here in MN (like I have any readers outside of MN - haha) so I decided Chili would be the way to go. I didn't feel like looking up a recipe and I had a bunch of ingredients that really needed using so I chopped up some carrots, celery, red and green bell peppers, half an onion, a jalapeno (which is still burning my nose because of a stupid urge to pick it), and the chili spice medley. There is also a pound of hamburger, three cans of black beans, and tomato sauce. Hopefully it will feed me for a few days.



There is the final picture. This is most of my reading material for when I get done with finals and maybe a little before. My brother, Dean of Alchemy Organica, recommended the Peterson book to me. I'm looking forward to reading it this break. Hopefully I can get through a good portion of it. There is so much I want to do over break and I only get a month to do it. We'll see what happens.