Dem Pots n Pans

One of the (many, many) goals I've recently set for myself is to use my cookbook collection more frequently. One thing about cooking professionally is that you have a tendency to not want to bother with recipes. If you know cooking fundamentals, it's easy enough to throw things together. But this also results in a rut, and you don't learn anything new.

One of the things about being a professional eater is that there's always an excuse to eat out. And one of the things about living in Uptown, is that there is always somewhere to eat. But, nothing beats a homecooked meal, and the man is about to start penning blues tunes about my evil ways.

And anyhow, it really is high time to christian the new kitchen.

It's a modest collection, but most of them are gems:

I weeded out the junk during the move, and this is what I'm left with. Many of these were gifts, and I know the story behind each one. Today, I'm cooking from Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way, which was in fact a gift from the man, a not at all subtle hint for more homecooked meals. The other is Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven, which I think I bought for myself when we decided to get our first farm share. Subsequently, I didn't use the book much at all, because the veg were so beautiful I elected to keep them as simple as possible.

Tonight I made tamales, Kantzen's Firecracker Red Beans as well as her Smoky Hot Sauce, and Pepin's Soupy Rice with Peas, which he says is a version of arroz asopao, a Puerto Rican dish.

The beans were rather fussy, but I think they were worth it. It called for almond butter, which I was tempted to substitute with peanut butter, but it was such a specific ingredient, I decided to go with it. A small jar cost me nine bucks. Yep, American dollars. But yes, I think it was worth the coin as well as the fuss. Rich, complex, and spicy, its the kind of thing that's going to be even better tomorrow:

Spring onions and snap peas are in season now, and Pepin's recipe was a great vehicle for both. I don't have a visual, cuz my pic didn't do it justice, but it was very nice indeed, the sweet little peas popping like sugar pillows between my teeth. In reality, it was just a basic risotto, but I used Cojita instead of Parm in order to Latin it up. It was a nice substitute for regular old Mexican rice. Here are the pretty onions:

The Smoky Tomato Sauce may have been the winner of the evening, just a simple puree of smoked tomatoes, chipotle, salt and a little lime. I grilled the 'mater on the downdraft indoor grill that came with our new place. I'm kind of deeply in love with it, as it does things like this in no time flat:

I confess, I bought the tamales, because as cool as it would be, I do not have a Mexican grandmother to teach me this dish-- a pain in the ass even for the most experienced Mexican cooks, usually reserved for holidays and special occasions. La Loma does a bang up job of these, and if you can dial up 5 mins on your microondas, they're yours. They don't quite compare to the street tamales we get in Mexico-- the texture of the masa is a little off-- but the heavily spiced filling was stunning, and they're wrapped in real banana leaves: 

Overall, this was a nice Tuesday night dinner, and my husband won't have to shoot me like they do in all the blues tunes, at least not this week.