Sometimes A Grain is Just A Grain

Sorry for the long lull in posts. I'm getting a little bored with the concept, but have yet to figure out what's next. If anyone has ideas, let me know!

But I had to post about tonight's meal, because it epitomizes the freakish nature of my best weird meals.

I had stuffed peppers for dinner, with a side of toasted ravioli and scotch.

Not weird, you say? The pepper was stuffed primarily with oatmeal...

I have been experimenting with fermentation for awhile now- first a sub-par cider, then a strange grape concoction. I approach it with the same disregard of rules I apply to cooking, so I'm comfortable producing sub-par things, as long as it's kind of educational.

In any case, this morning I started my first quasi-beer by boiling some grains in water- about 60% oatmeal, 40% red wheat. I made my quasi-wort, then wondered what to do with all the leftover grains. Needless to say, I don't have a cow (which is where brewers ditch the byproducts of beer-making), but the grains weren't overly mushy. I ate some for breakfast, a la cereal, but had a ton left over.

Around dinnertime, I realized I had a ton of veggies I needed to eat. Stuffed peppers sounded good, but I didn't want to have to cook quinoa, kasha, or rice. And then I remembered the oatmeal.

I was grossed out by the concept, but a little curious. And in the end, it was a great call. I added a little mozzarella, then baked them for close to an hour. The cheese made the grains taste sufficiently savory, to the degree it was very tasty. I couldn't have distinguished the grain primarily as oatmeal based on taste.

We'll see how the quasi-beer turns out in a few weeks...In the meantime, my Glenmorangie is pretty decent.

Experimental Ravioli at Home

For dinner, I had some butternut squash ravioli, with a side of (surprise!) butternut squash, and a saison beer to drink.

Mid-afternoon, I decided today was a crazy cooking adventure kind of day. And then I remembered seeing this recipe, except I had a butternut squash to get rid of, not a pumpkin. I've made homemade pasta before, but never ravioli, despite having a mysterious, bulky contraption lying around the house for YEARS that appears to be a ravioli mold. So, I went for it.

I made homemade pasta with semolina flour, three eggs, and a little warm water. It's probably my inability to find 00 flour (I was actually sort of offended that the Whole Foods here doesn't sell bulk semolina flour, instead forcing me to buy an overpriced bag of it courtesy of Bob's Red Mill, but that's another story), but my pasta is always pretty dry and finicky. Despite this, I was able to get it stretched through my pasta machine, then press it into the weird ravioli mold, filled, dried out a bit, and into the water. They turned out deliciously, although the recipe's 3-4 minute cooking time is wildly optimistic. Lucky I like my pasta very, very chewy.

Jon was less thrilled. He dislikes squash, and is miserable every fall when I torture him with the seasonal bounty of new, undiscovered squash varieties. He was especially not thrilled when I decided to serve the remaining squash filling as a side dish. Said filling consisted of roasted, mashed squash, mixed with a little ricotta, brown butter, shallots, nutmeg, and bere bere powder (because one of my cardinal cooking rules is that anything is improved by adding more bere bere); I rationalized that nothing in it made it inappropriate as a side. No slimy raw eggs, for example.

The beer was ok, but not amazing. I am still mourning the loss of New Belgium's Saison (bastards), so I was excited to see that Schlafly, the local large-ish brewery, has released a seasonal saison. It's nicely balanced and appropriately fall-ish, but a little syrupy. More bitter, less molasses please.

Ravioli at Home

Tonight for dinner, I had some red pepper ravioli in a garlic butter sauce with a glass of rosé.

I didn't really know what I wanted for dinner, so I wandered aimlessly around Central Market looking for ideas. I came across some yummy-looking clams at their seafood counter, and started planning for pappardelle with clam sauce. Their seafood counter was grossly understaffed. I waited several minutes, only to discover that they were not utilizing their take-a-ticket system and it was line-jumping anarchy. I was seriously annoyed, so kept wandering. I found the papardelle, grabbed some wine, and looped back around to seafood, as I hadn't found anything else I really wanted for dinner. The congestion was actually worse. I found it interesting that twenty or so people were clogging the seafood counter, while the meat counter had exactly one customer. Usually it's the opposite. Maybe all the Texans need a warm-weather respite from all the beef. I was irritated that the two unoccupied meat counter guys weren't popping over to help, and finally gave up on clams.

I ended up with some red pepper, mozzarella, and basil ravioli. It was really red pepper ravioli, with only the slightest inkling of mozzarella, and none of basil. Still pretty decent. I got some Alessi marinara sauce to go with it, but decided at the last minute to make a simple garlic butter sauce instead.

The wine was the standout of the meal. Santola is a Portuguese producer, and I'd had their vinho verde and their red before, but never their rosé. It's delicious. I was looking for a French-style rosé (usually pretty dry, floral and herby) rather than a California-style (usually sickly sweet and fruity), and this is passably close. It's sweeter than a French rosé, but it has the most amazing smell- lots of heady grassy and floral honey smells. It doesn't taste nearly as good as it smells, but it smells fabulous.

Armadillo in Texas?

For dinner, I had lobster ravioli (not as posh as it sounds- thanks, Costco), with a garlicky tomato sauce and a glass of Yellowtail Pinot Grigio. Oh, and an orange-flavored Cadbury's egg for dessert. It was all pretty good.

More interesting is what I ate last night: a catered dinner at the Galleria's Westin Hotel, as part of a grad school celebration.

The first course was a mixed greens salad with a balsamic vinaigrette and a rather large, deep-fried goat cheese thingy. I want to call it a "purse", but that sounds pretentious. It was actually very good- nicely balanced dressing, an interesting mix of greens, and rather innovative cheese thingy. I wish the rest of the meal had been that good.

We didn't get a choice of entree, although our Kosher friend was accommodated with a fabulous-looking roasted veggie plate. The main course was chicken. It reminded me of an armadillo on the plate. Not kidding- the scaly chicken skin was left on, and it had been stuffed and cut into slices that resembled an armadillo's rounded carapace. I tried to remove the skin, because it had the leathery, rubbery texture of chicken feet (don't ask), but most of it refused to come off. The filling remains unidentified. My first thought was of mushed veggies, ratatouille gone wrong, but the texture was too smooth, and it had a toxic yellow-orange tinge. Sort of unconscionable, considering a simple stuffing of cheese and roasted pepper (or any number of other, not-toxic-orange things) would've been amazing. The green beans that accompanied it were crunchy, hard, and raw.

The desserts had been taunting us the whole time, as they'd been placed in the middle of each table prior to service. Unfortunately, they were deceptively attractive. I settled on a chocolate mousse sitting atop a thick, crumbly chocolate crust base. The mousse was decent, but had a plasticky texture. It had been dusted with too much cocoa powder, which puffed all over the white tablecloth with each forkful of mousse. And the crust was too thick and cakey to balance the mousse.

I tried a spoonful of the other dessert for research purposes. It was far worse. It looked like berries mixed with Cool Whip, but it had been sitting out too long and tasted like styrofoam. Next year, we'll advocate for better food.

Ravioli at Home

For dinner, I had ravioli and a glass of wine. And some organic Cheeto-like things...

I bought the ravioli Saturday at the Spec's downtown. First, I'll say that the flagship Spec's on a Saturday afternoon is about as much interesting cultural experience as you can have for free in Houston. I decided on a whim to grab some prosciutto San Daniele, one of my favorite guilty porky pleasures, because the price was the best I've seen anywhere.

While waiting, I had to deal with the obnoxious woman ahead of me in line who would not move for me to look into their meat display. She then proceeded to request a sample of, like, eight different things. Between each sample, she would spend a few minutes cogitating, and then request another sample of something else. Not to be rude or anything, but I think this story makes a little more sense if I add that she was Russian. The poor meat counter lady tried to help me while the woman was busy contemplating her many samples, at which point the woman proceeded to throw a hissy-fit. So, I got to wait. And wait. And wait. The Russian woman actually walked off before her last bit of charcuterie was done, never to be seen again.

It was finally my turn, but then they had to open a new ham for me. I don't think the San Daniele was very popular. It took the woman ten minutes to open it and slice off the outer cap of fat. However, it made my wait worthwhile when she handed over a sample, a few ounces worth (we're talking $2-3 of ham here). At which point some incredibly strange older man, also Eastern European, walks up and requests "cheese samples" in a thick accent. No specific type, no intent to actually buy cheese, he was just cruising Spec's for samples. The counter woman was so frustrated by this point that she couldn't understand anything he said. I translated, and offered him a bit of my prosciutto sample, which he accepted. I finally got my pork, and toddled off to the wines. On the way out, I grabbed said pack of whole wheat Putney Pasta spinach-cheese ravioli.

I was concerned when I took it out of the freezer to cook, only to discover large chunks of frost and patches of freezer burn. I guess the lesson here is to avoid buying pasta at what's basically a big wine store with a deli/specialty foods wing on the side. Despite the icky look (even after it was cooked, several pieces were an entirely different color due to serious freezer burn), the flavors were very good. I think the presence of very good Italian parm made the difference, as did the homemade garlic butter sauce I tossed it in.

The wine, also from Spec's, turned out to be nice, after much speculation. It was Alamos' malbec, 2007. Alamos is the less expensive brand made by Catena Vineyards, from Argentina. All of their wines I'd had before were at least great, and some exceptional. They get kudos for making excellent chardonnay, something Argentina is definitely not known for. But I opened this wine Saturday night, and it was terrifying. I love very dry tannic reds, but this was almost like vinegar. I wondered if it was corked. But no, once it had a few hours to breathe it was fine. Still not my favorite wine from them, nor my favorite malbec, but not bad. I think it just needs more aging before it's truly drinkable.

Then, the Cheetos. Jon bought some organic Cheeto-equivalent puffs from Whole Foods the other day. I was left with a ton of garlic butter sauce from my ravioli, and no bread in the house to soak it up...I didn't want to waste all that garlicky yumminess. Solution: cheese puffs. All those little internal pores really sucked up the garlic butter nicely. I know it sounds disgusting, but it was yummy.

Fromage a Quatre?

For dinner, I had beef and spinach ravioli with some leftover puttanesca sauce and bread with olive oil. And an intriguing dessert.

The ravioli was organic frozen ravioli from Whole Foods. Not too bad, especially since it was cooked correctly for once. I like my pasta on the chewy side of al dente, and Jon likes his on the smushy side of al dente, so pasta is a often a point of contention. It was beefy without being greasy; my only complaint was the relative paucity of filling, and the fact I couldn't taste the spinach much at all.

The puttanesca was left over from last week's orecchiete. It's Target's Archer Farms brand, which is generally good, and it's made in Italy, so I assumed it was a safe bet. But no. The sauce is atrocious. The first time we opened it, there was a good 1/2" of olive oil suspended on top of the sauce. Puttanesca (translation: whore sauce)does contain many oily, salty ingredients- olives, olive oil, anchovies- but that's no excuse. It contained enough salt to kill a large mammal, and it lacked the spiciness of a good puttanesca. It's incredibly easy to make at home, so next time I'll just do that.

For dessert, I had some cheese and wine. Neither is what you would expect.
The cheese was a leftover Valentine's Day splurge, something so weird I couldn't pass it up- chocolate, pecan, bourbon, and raisin flavored goat cheese. Called Fromage a Trois (the name is even more absurd when you count the flavors- but then, I am a humorless literalist), the cheese left me a little confused. It tastes good, it just doesn't taste anything like cheese. It tastes like very nice velvety-dark chocolate mousse, with mostly ineffectual chunks of pecan and raisin. I hate raisins, but I wouldn't have known what the mushy black things in my cheese were without checking the ingredient list. The bourbon flavor is basically non-existent. It's an interesting gimmick, but not one I expect to crave (particularly since I thought it was a splurge at $11, and then found this price list)

I had a glass of fino sherry with the cheese. A pretty sad pairing, considering the sweet "cheese", but it was still good. Fino sherry is the lightest and driest type of sherry- the drier the better in my book- and tastes like crisp apples, vanilla, and oak. It's great on a hot day after a huge meal, especially paella.

Ravioli in Houston

For dinner, I had whole wheat cheese and asparagus ravioli with arrabiata sauce and a glass of malbec.

The ravioli was Safeway's/Randall's house brand, with an intriguing, but not quite fearsome, three grams of fiber per serving. As might be expected by the 'asparagus and cheese' description, the filling was very, very strange. Not bad, just not the ideal thing to smush up and put in one's ravioli. It tasted kind of lemon-ey, but not in a good way. Also, the cheese part of the filling was also overly sweet, and the raviolis stuck together annoyingly. The sauce was pretty decent. I am very picky about jarred sauces, and Mezzetta's Napa Valley line is in the middle. I adore arrabiata that makes me cry, and this is definitely not it. It's thicker than most sauces, but is also oddly chunky, and the veggies in the sauce are very crunchy, giving it a pasta-with-veggies feel rather than a pasta-with-sauce feel. That said, the flavor isn't too bad.

The best part of the meal was the wine. Gascon malbec from wonderful Mendoza, Argentina. My loving husband has been on a malbec kick of late, and it's a very good thing. I'd forgotten all about malbecs, having gotten quite distracted with the Iberian Peninsula. Anything from Spain or Portugal is a delicious, amazing value, but the same can be said for most wines from South America. This one is garnet-colored, with smooth berry flavors and nice tannins, and under $10.

For purposes of edification (and because more photos of ravioli would be boring), the graphic is the official flag of Mendoza province.

Olive Garden by the Medical Center

Today, I had lunch at the much-maligned Olive Garden. Not my choice, but it was interesting after so many years away. Even their menu seems to have changed significantly from what I remembered; to me, it looked less classically Italian (if you could ever have labeled anything on the menu 'classic Italian') than ever before.

Not too much has changed otherwise. I tried to order a glass of their rose wine, but the waitress misunderstood me. I can't help but wonder how many people order wine by requesting "rosso", "bianco", or "rosato", as they are listed on the menu. Apparently the linguistics were sufficiently misleading so that I ended up with a glass of RED wine. Maybe I shouldn't expect someone who works at Olive Garden to know what rose is. It was very sweet and otherwise undistinguished, kind of like cheap wine from California. I was, however, encouraged to see that there is a Nero d'Avola on the menu, as this is not a very commonly imported Sicilian grape that I adore.

I could not decide on food. Their menu is kind of pricey (even at lunch) for my perception of the quality of what's served...$15 for grilled fish and pasta? I settled on the $9.95 cheese ravioli, which came with salad and breadsticks. No objection to the salad. The breadsticks were fine, even if I find the concept of spongy, greasy, wheat-germless "bread" kind of scary in general. The ravioli was decidedly not good. Olive Garden gets kudos for not overcooking them, but the filling needed help. It was particularly gross, as one lunch companion had just told me a story about 'The Simpsons' that involved Ralphie eating paste. Very chalky paste. They were covered with a very generic and salty marinara sauce and a little grated mozzarella. Not an awful meal, but nothing to change my mind about the chain. At those prices, I can cook pre-made ravioli at home with better sauce and wine.