Some more culinary exploits

First an update: That lasagna with pesto and such? Freakin' amazing. Like the best lasagna I've ever had. I've been rationing the leftovers because whenever I eat one piece I consider eating the rest of it.

But on to the next thing. We got a little more adventurous and made tamales last week. It was an interesting experience. First off, the corn husks had a weird vinegar smell to them, possibly so they don't mold? Then after spending a while researching (mostly watching Good Eats) we figured out (to my surprise) that fine cornmeal and maza (with which you traditionally make tameles) are not the same thing. But we trekked on. (It turns out that 'hot tamales', an actual food, not just a candy that no one eats, are made with cornmeal, so there is some precedent).

Here's the dough, which is blue cornmeal (cool color), water, shortening (usually lard), and spices- we used oregano, and lime zest.


We made the filling with fresh corn, black beans, jack cheese, cilantro, and lime juice.


The assembly line:

Here are the pretty packages cooking:

We don't have a steamer so I put an upside-down pie plate in the bottom of the pot (I think that's an Alton Brown trick but I can't remember) and put them around and on top of that. And it's here that we ran into the slight problem. Twice the water boiled all out and burned...well a lot- the bottom of the pot, the pie pan, the ends of the tamales. Lucky for us, tamales have their own protective shell. So the results were still very tasty, although the pot is now warped. At least it didn't get a hole burned through it.
Purple and delicious:

Pizza

Another dinner post.
We made pizza on Tuesday night. I handmade the dough but it kind of failed. It seems to be a successful process about half the time- the first time worked out fine, but I don't remember what recipe I used and it hasn't been the same ever since. It's especially hard to judge the amount of kneading and to actually continue to knead it until it's done (makes me wish for a breadmaker). If anyone has a good dough recipe that's hand tested I'd take it. Instead of our normal tomato, mozzarella, onion, green pepper, we opted for some different toppings: sauce, basil and oregano, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, pepperoncini, olives, red bell pepper. Here's it before the oven:


And after, a little browner on the edges:


The toppings were great, but the crust...not so much. Kaley said it tasted like a scone. I was thinking more like floury cardboard. Either way, not good eats. But edible on top so it wasn't totally wasted.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

We made cobbler tonight and it turned out surprisingly well. The rhubarb (frozen) was really flavorful. The recipe we used wasn't very good so I won't put it up, but I'm all for cooking with frozen rhubarb.

Still pertinent

I saw this food philosophy on the blog a Buffalo area chef that I read. Good advice, even after 90 years. And who knew the local food movement wasn't a recent trend?

Urban Simplicity: Food Philosophy 1917