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We just remodeled our kitchen “aka the Lab” so I thought I’d post some pictures. The cabinets come from IKEA. The sink, stove, microwave, & granite (on sale) are from Home Depot. The faucet & soap dispenser are from a local kitchen store. The renovation was pretty speedy and our kitchen was only out of commission for about 6 weeks. So without further ado…

The drywall behind the previous cabinets was badly damaged.. So we started with fixing that. Next came plumbing!

We bought a new stove/microwave & created an outlet for the new micro.

The before pictures shows only the utility closet & area where the fridge sits. We did redo both the pantry & utility closet.

Hanging cabinets.. And a new kitchen!

I bought some Poblano peppers from the Farmer’s Market this week and decided to improvise a poblano stew. I ended up adding potatoes, pinquito beans (from Rancho Gordo), shitakes (also from the Farmer’s Market), tomatillos, onions, garlic, hominy (also from Rancho Gordo), chicken stock, New Mexican red chile powder, cumin & salt.

I pressure cooked the pinquitos & hominy. Though ended up with the hominy slightly underdone. Next time I’ll start the hominy first and then add the pinquitos. I decided to roast the poblanos, tomatillos, shitakes & onions before adding them to the soup.

As always I was amazed at how 5 minutes in the pressure cooker melted & melded everything together.

Finally I topped the stew with a little cilantro and served with hot corn tortillas.

Pan-frying is akin to sauteing. You cook small amount of food over medium-high heat in a minimal amount of fat (oil, butter, lard). The only difference between pan-frying and sauteing being in pan-frying you simply flip the food whereas in sauteing you make the food jump and hop.

In both techniques the goal is to create a brown crust on the outside of the food. To do this you must heat your pan to a relatively high temperature and not overcrowd the pan with food. Make either of these mistakes and your dish is more likely to boil in the steam released by the ingredients than get the desired browned crust.

Today I’ll be demonstrating pan-frying using trout fillets. Other foods I typically pan-fry are vegetable patties, veggie burgers, thin-cut pork chops, eggplant slices, and over easy eggs.

In this case I’ll be coating the fish in cornmeal. So let’s take a look at this ingredients: trout, cornmeal, salt, pepper & oil.

The first step is to season both sides of the fish. You’ll want to use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of each salt & pepper on both sides. In this case, trout is a freshwater fish and so needs a little extra help with the salt. You can add any other spices you like at this point. Cumin, oregano, garam marsala…

To get a nice crust on the fish we are coating it in cornmeal. This is one of the easiest coatings to use. Other coatings you could try would be breadcrumbs, flour/egg wash/breadcrumbs, or light coating of mustard/breadcrumbs. In the case of veggie patties you don’t need any coating. You are going to coat both sides of the fish with the cornmeal. You may have to sprinkle some extra in the spots that aren’t picking up the coating & press to make sure it adheres.

Once your fish is completely coated heat your oil over medium-high in a heavy skillet. I use extra-light olive oil for all my pan-frying because you can heat it to a fairly high temperature before it begins smoking up your house. Extra virgin olive oil will begin to smoke at a much lower temperature. Other good oils to use for pan-frying include: peanut oil, safflower oil, canola oil, & sunflower oil.

Once the oil is hot (you can tell because it will spread in the pan & begin to look shimmery) you add the fish. Cook on each side until you get a golden-brown crust. You may need to move the fish around a bit to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Once the fish is cooked through you can take it off the heat & serve. It is best served quickly as the coating will begin to get soggy if you keep the fish sitting around too long. For this piece of fish I cooked it about 3 minutes per side as it was a thin piece.

I recently got a pressure cooker and it is currently vying against my fuzzy-logic rice cooker as best kitchen equipment purchase. I know, can you believe it after my raving review of the rice cooker?? I still haven’t decided who has won yet – they both save me time and they both are getting lots of use. Here’s a short list of why I love my pressure cooker:

1. Chickpeas (yes, the longest cooking beans of all) in 13 minutes!!!
2. I can make pickled things (see the beets below).
3. It is a “new generation” pressure cooker without a jiggle top so I am not worried about it blowing up.
4. I don’t have to heat up my whole kitchen – just the stove top.. There’s limited numbers of things you can sauté… Add a pressure cooker and you’ve increased your choices by a bazillion. Seriously, I made cake in the thing today.
5. Saves energy. Things cook quicker so you use the stove less.

Anyhow, I thought I’d share two of the veggie recipes I’ve been enjoying. Both are adapted from Lorna Sass’ Complete Vegetarian Kitchen.

Eggplant Caponata

Quick Pickled Beets & Carrots

One of the easiest pickling recipes I’ve come across. The pressure cooker to infuse the beets & carrots with the pickling brine in record time.

Ingredients

• 2 medium beets, scrubbed, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 2 medium carrots, cut on the diagonal into 1/4-inch slices
• 1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3/4 c. apple juice or water
• 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar

Directions

Combine all ingredients in the pressure cooker. Lock lid in place and bring to high pressure. Lower heat enough to maintain high pressure and cook for 4 minutes. Reduce pressure with a quick-release method. Remove lid and test beets – if not tender, replace cover and allow to steam in residual heat until done.

These can be refrigerated up to 2 weeks. Mine didn’t last that long though.