In addition to enjoying our neighborhood, I’m also trying to get back in the kitchen and do some real cooking. One the the best gifts we got from our going away haul, were two British cookbooks. Today, we can get practically any ingredient whenever we want, so it’s hard to know about traditional foods. I feel these cookbooks are giving me some good insight on traditional British cooking. There’s lot of recipes using lamb, pork, and part of the animals I’ve barely considered before. Alternatively, there aren’t many recipes using turkey or poultry. Vegetable recipes use mostly root vegetables, and barely any light leafy greens. These recipes give clues to what would have been available, before everything was available. I love it!

I also love the cookbooks because the recipe names are wonderful and amusing. Here are some examples: Yorshire Fat Rascals (cookies), flummery (custard), bubble and squeak (potatoes and cabbage). It’s so much more delightful than just describing what is in the dish. I love it. The name, soles in their coffins, is part of the reason that I c
hose today’s recipe. The sole, is the type of fish used. And the coffin is a hollowed out baked potato. I find this dish’s name both gruesome and adorable, I think that’s part of the fun. But I also thought the recipe sounded tasty. Seriously, fish, potatoes, and shrimp? That sounds yummy to me. I also wanted to push myself to try more fish recipes, and the technique seemed straight forward enough.  Although all the steps are pretty easy, it is a time consuming recipe. To make it quicker Ryan and I did the whole thing together, and that made cooking even more fun.

This recipe comes from the book Great British Cooking: A Well Kept Secret. This book is adapted for the American kitchen, which is awesome except that I’m an American cook using a British kitchen. So, I like measurements in cups and tablespoons, but Fahrenheit isn’t helpful anymore. More specifically, the recipe writes temperature in Fahrenheit and my oven is Celsius. Needless to say, Ryan and I did some Googling and converting mid cook.  I think after today, I’ll have to start putting both temperatures on the blog to keep my mind straight.

If you’re going to attempt this recipe, my most important recommendation is to trust your eye on how much to buy. The original recipe calls for 8 small sole fillets and 4 baking potatoes. When I saw the size of the available potatoes, compared to the size of the sole fillets, I knew that wouldn’t work. I went with three sole fillets, and 4 potatoes. The biggest fillet was cut in half and fit nicely in the two smallest potatoes. While at the grocery store, use your judgement on what will fit best. Ok, that’s enough direction. Let’s get cooking.

Ingredients:

4 baking potatoes

3-4 sole fillets

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

2 cups white wine

4 tbsp butter

1/3 cup flour

2 cups mushrooms, sliced lengthwise

1 cup peeled and uncooked shrimp

salt

pepper

butter & milk for seasoning potatoes

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 425°.

2. Scrub the potatoes clean. Use a fork and poke a few wholes into the potato. Put the potatoes directly onto the oven rack, or on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour, or until a knife pokes through with no resistance. (I took this picture because I was so excited to have an oven light. The oven in Arlington did not have a light)

3. While the potato is baking, chop the onion.

4. In a small roasting pan, or oven proof dish, roll the sole fillets (like you’re rolling up a carpet). Pour the wine and onions over the fish. Season with salt and pepper. Cover loosely with aluminum foil.

5. When the potatoes are finished, take them out and set them aside to cool. Keep the oven door slightly ajar for a few minutes to let some heat out. Reset the oven to 350°.

6. Put the fish in the oven for 8 minutes. If you’re worried your oven is too hot, take it out a little earlier. You don’t want the fish to be overcooked.

7. While the fish is cooking, chop the mushrooms. Also, take the potatoes and cut a slice off lengthwise. This is the lid to your coffin. Use a spoon and hollow out your baked potatoes. Set the insides in a bowl to use later.

8. Take the fish out of the oven. Turn the heat up to 400°. Carefully remove the fish from the pan. Keep the cooking liquid, but strain out the onions.

9. In a saucepan, melt the 4 tbsp of butter. Then add the flour and cook for two minutes. Gradually add the strained wine cooking liquid. Stir until you get a light-colored creamy sauce (you might not need all the liquid). Taste. Season with salt and pepper if desired (Be careful! I didn’t realize my pepper opened two ways, one way with small holes and one with large. I accidentally opened the large size and dumped so much pepper in I practically ruined the sauce!)

10. While you’re making the sauce, heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, then add the shrimp. Cook until they just turn pink. Remove from heat.

12. Put the potato coffins in your roasting pan. Spoon a bit of sauce into the bottom of a hollowed out potato. Then place a fish fillet inside. Spoon a bit more sauce on top. Then spoon the shrimp and mushrooms on top of that. If you like the sauce, you can pour lots more sauce on and smother the whole thing. Finally put the potato lid on top.

13. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes. While this is cooking, mash the potato insides. Gradually add milk, butter, and salt until the mashed potatoes are to your liking.

14. Remove from the oven. Place a coffin and a dollop of mashed potatoes on your plate. Serve!

Messy level: 4 spoons. This has a lot of steps, and requires a lot of spoons, pots, and finesse. The maneuvering between steps isn’t hard, but we made a mess straining the wine sauce, stirring the flour sauce, and all the pouring that has to be done. Also, hollowing a potato and stuffing it with a sole fillet makes for some gooey fingers.

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My mom recently read an article on how people in their 20’s and early 30’s don’t know how to cook. She also sent me this article, which just hurt my brain. How could anyone, even if it is just 11% of people, think that eggs come from wheat? My mom suggested that I could use my blog as a place to teach young people how to cook. And it’s a good idea, I’m twenty-something and I make my living teaching and explaining things to people.

My college friends and me cooking up a storm!

But I didn’t really believe that it was true, so I decided to talk to my friends. I felt sure that my friends knew how to cook. My college friends and I used to do a cooking blog together. And I was sure I had either eaten something, or seen my friends eat something, that they themselves had made. So imagine my surprise when some of my friends did say they didn’t know how to cook!

However, it sort of seems to me, they think they don’t know how to cook, because what it means to cook means different things to different people. People said cooking was something more than putting prepared ingredients together. It’s making the inedible, edible. It usually means using heat. For some people it was knowing how to improvise and go off from the recipe. And it’s putting largely raw/basic/unprocessed ingredient together so that the finished product is better than the individual parts. It’s not a super clear definition; because is a sandwich from a panini press cooking? Is making a salad cooking? Opinions were mixed, but what’s obvious is that cooking is on a spectrum. I mean, I would say I know how to cook, but I haven’t been doing it for very long and I’m no celebrity chef. I know how to do many things, but I don’t know how to cook everything! Ultimately, what it means to cook is varied. For my friends who say they can’t cook, I hope this is encouraging and might make you feel like you can cook. Or, at the very least, maybe I can help you find some recipes you’re comfortable with.

I’d also like to say, that in considering this topic, I went a little overboard. I asked my friends a bunch of questions, I sought out articles, I thought about this all the time, and I wrote pages and pages of single-spaced commentary. I was getting consumed with the ideas of why people didn’t cook, regardless of their cooking ability. But I felt like I was getting crazy and somehow moving off track. What I want from this blog, is to have a place to share what I’m cooking. I want to share my learning experiences. I don’t know everything and I’m trying to challenge myself to make good meals, and to try to cook things that I only ever thought I’d buy at the grocery store.

This funny guy is from Microsoft Word Clip Art

And that’s when I realized I should definitely take my mom’s advice and make an effort to share some great recipes. I want novice cooks to have some recipes where they can learn and challenge themselves. I get excited with myself when I make something new and  it tastes good. I’d like to help other people have that feeling. So, I’m going to mark beginner recipes at the start of a post using this funny picture of a chef. He looks like he’s marching boldly forward into new cooking terrain. And that’s what I’m trying to do with this blog, and I hope it’s what you’ll do if you want to learn to cook. And I think recipes that are good for new cooks are those that have some combination of the following:

1. Ingredients you probably already have in the house

2. That have simple techniques, but also might push you to learn new skills

3. That take less than an hour to make

4. Are so darn delicious that you just gotta get out of your comfort zone and try it.

Today’s recipe, has 1, 2, and 3. I mean, it’s also delicious but it’s not likely to be hugely out of your comfort zone. Something I think would be a good #4 is the post I did on Pad Thai Inspired Noodles.

Also, before we get on to the recipe, I wanted to share the reasons why I cook. These reasons make me happy and maybe something will resonate with you.

My reasons:

1. Makes me feel healthy – Being healthy means a lot of different things. I don’t always cook nutritious and low-calorie foods, because I love sweets and cheese. Cooking makes me feel healthy because the number of ingredients in prepared foods makes me nervous. I like knowing what’s in my meals.
2. Cost – I get to have yummy leftovers for lunch and so don’t have to go out to eat all the time.
3. Spending time with my Family – I grew up every night eating home cooked dinners with my family. Yes, we could have had the same experience over pizza but there’s something special about cooking. My parents would experiment and try new dishes and see how it played with the family. And cooking at home builds anticipation! There’s bubbling sounds of soups and the yummy smell of baking cookies. There’s also the less good sound of a shrieking fire alarm and the smell of a smoky kitchen. But even when it goes a little wrong, it’s funny later and makes for a good memory.
4. I like shopping – I can’t afford to go out and buy dresses, shoes, and purses every week. It’s bad for my finances and a little excessive. But food, I can buy all the time. And I have fun browsing the farmer’s market and the grocery store, choosing the most beautiful red strawberries, the smoothest olive oil, or the crunchiest granola.
5. Productive Leisure Time – I like watching TV, playing video games, and starring off into space but I also like spending my time doing something useful. I like that I get to be creative, to challenge myself, and to make a beautiful and tasty finished product.

Teeniest strainer with a quarter for scale. Photo Credit: Charlotte. THANKS!

Now I’m done philosophizing on cooking, so let’s get to the recipe. Quiche always makes me think of my parents because the first time they saw the word they thought it was pronounced “kwee-chee.” It’s really pronounced key-sh. If you’re not familiar with kwee-chee, it’s a dish usually associated with the French. It often has a pastry crust (although this recipe is crust-less) and the inner filling is made with eggs and milk or cheese. Basically, it’s like a pie with eggs. And it’s something that you can pretty much eat at any meal. I think this recipe is good for beginners because it has ingredients that are probably already in your house. Also, if you’re feeling brave there is opportunity to improvise and make the recipe your own. Now, my friend did most of the cooking for this recipe, and I was the sous-chef. My job was to blanch the asparagus and use the world’s teeniest strainer. I didn’t take too many pictures because I was the assistant. My bad.

Ingredients:

2 cups asparagus, chopped

1  12 oz. can evaporated milk

3 large eggs, beaten

2 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

If you’re feeling adventurous: In this recipe you can substitute asparagus and mushrooms for other ingredients. Think of the things you prefer in an omelette. Ham? Bell peppers? Do it! Just stick to 2 1/2 cups or less of your fillings. Also, if you prefer mozzarella, you can use that instead of Cheddar!

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan. Use cooking spray or butter

3. Blanch asparagus in boiling water for 2 minutes. Blanching means that you’re putting the vegetable in boiling water for a very short time. What this does is to cook it just a bit before the “main” cooking. It’s usually done with a firm vegetable, like asparagus. This is also something you do to clean the vegetables, so if you’re thinking of freezing veggies, you should blanch them first.

4. Drain asparagus and set aside.

5. Whisk evaporated milk, salt, pepper, and eggs in a bowl until well mixed

6. Stir in cheese, asparagus, and mushrooms

7. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with the egg mixture. Stir the mixture after every few cups. This is to make sure the veggies and cheese don’t sink to the bottom. You can see that we filled more than 2/3 full. I recommend you stick to 2/3.

8. Bake for 25 minutes. It could be more or less time depending. You will know it’s done when it’s lightly brown on top and if you stick a toothpick in the center it will come out clean. It is NOT done if it looks wet or jiggly in the middle. Because we super filled the cups, most of them overflowed and looked like muffins. Some just cooked straight up in the air, and had a nice shape. Regardless of what they looked like in the pan, they all deflated a little when we took them out of the oven. So, it might look weird in the oven, but it will look like an nice little egg biscuit at the end.

9. Let them cool for 10 minutes.

10. Use a knife and run it around the edge of the quiches. This is to loosen the quiche from the pan. Sorry I don’t have a picture of it out of the pan. But aren’t they pretty anyway?

11. Serve and eat!

Messy Factor:

Low. The biggest mess we had was when I used the teeniest strainer to strain the asparagus. And that was barely messy because all I did was drop asparagus into a bigger bowl. This recipe requires very few dishes and the quiches pop out of the muffin tin really easily. Even when they overflowed in the oven, the quiche shrank down to size, making very little mess.

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If you’re not a fan of spicy this might not be the recipe for you. It’s not very spicy in the way of hot wings. Instead, it leaves a pleasant tingly feeling on the lips and mouth after each bit. It’s a nice after effect.

I got this recipe from Jacques Pépin’s cookbook, Essential Pepin. I LOVE this book! It’s easy to follow, it has tons of recipes, and it had a great DVD in the back that teaches some basic, fancy and impressive cooking and presentation techniques. Love it, and love this recipe.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

~ 1 lb of steak.  Jacques says to use flank steak, I think I used a New York Strip.

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients, except the steak, in a dish until well mixed.

2. Put the steak in a dish large (like a casserole, gratin, or Pyrex type thing). Pour the marinade over the steaks. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator for 1-24 hours. (I only did 1 hour)

3. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 200°. You could also go up to 250 if you want it less pink. I’ve done both and it worked well.

4. Heat a skillet on high heat. Heat for about 5 minutes until it’s very hot. You can also heat up a grill. I used a grill pan, so I was still working with the stove, but I could also get those awesome grill lines.

5. Put the steaks in the skillet and cook on each side for about 2 minutes. DO NOT pour the extra marinade in the skillet. You’re using it in the next step.

6. Pour the the marinade in a saucepan and bring to a boil. After you’ve browned the steak, return it to the marinade (still in the saucepan).

7. Put the saucepan, containing the steak and marinade, into the warm oven. The steak will cook in it’s own heat for 10 minutes. The steak will come out medium to medium-rare. If you like it further cooked your options are to a.) cook it more in the skillet b.) turn the heat up more in the oven c.) leave it in the oven longer.

Step it up a notch – 

Chop up some mushrooms and onions (1/2 an onion, 1/2 a cup of mushrooms is probably good). When you remove the steak from the skillet, keep it on the stove. Add some soy sauce to the skillet and saute the mushrooms and onions until they are soft. This should take 5-10 minutes. Top the steak with this mixture. It’s delicious!!

Messy Level – This recipe doesn’t include a lot of pots, but marinades get sticky! It requires some good elbow grease, or a good pan, to get the cooked on juices free from the pan. But most of us could use a good upper body work out, so why not scrub 1 or 2 pans?

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