Nicole Is Cooking

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Since I am too sick to go out for New Year, it is finally time to get caught up on all my posts. I have really been slacking and have a big back log of pictures.

Back in October, I got on a kick of items I could freeze in ice cube trays to have handy to cook with. First I had a bunch of store bought vegetable broth that was going to expire. Then I made the Arugula “Pesto”. But what else? Everything started to point to Romesco.

First, it is one of those Millennium Cookbook recipes that when I have needed to make, I only need a small amount of it and am often left with a lot of leftover. Second, as I was driving to the farm to get my vegetables the day I was thinking about this, Lynne Rosetto Kasper was talking about Spanish food on the Splendid Table and took a caller question about roasting peppers and why you want to put them in a bag or closed container when you take them off the stove (it traps the steam and makes them easier to peel). Third, at the farm that day there were some gorgeous lipstick peppers so I took my pepper share as a pound and a half of lipstick peppers. And last, and probably most importantly, my stove top needed to be cleaned anyway.

Bowl of lipstick peppers from the farm.

I just learned something interesting doing the research for this entry. Traditional Romesco appears to be a roasted tomato and almond sauce with some pepper in it. The Millennium Romesco, which I have made a few times over the past few years, does not appear to be a traditional Romesco. Interesting. After encountering this in all the online recipes I saw, I even dragged out my copy of The Professional Chef (7th Edition) only to find they don’t address Romaesco at all. So… I apparently made Roasted Red Pepper Sauce? Well, on with it then!

One tasty tidbit I have picked up using the Millennium Cookbook is the braised garlic tip. Using their braised garlic recipe can actually reduce your oil usage in recipes requiring both oil and garlic (if you remember to keep it handy or have the time to make it). This recipe uses the braised garlic and does not require any oil. And since I have also recently found out that the only part of a recipe that can actually be copy righted is the instructions, I will tell you how to make it because it is awesome, not only in place of oil but as a spread on toasted pita (if you spread it on the pita before sticking it under the broiler, it will make it brown nicely too!).

First, take a few garlic bulbs and cut off about 1/2 inch of the tops.

Place the bulbs cut size down in a small baking pan with 1 cup of liquid (vegetable broth or a dry white wine). Add about a teaspoon each of fresh diced rosemary and thyme.

Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1.5 hours or until the garlic is soft and starting to brown.

Once the garlic is cool to the touch, squeeze to cloves out of the bulb. You can store it in the refrigerator for about a week.

You need to make this in order to make the Millennium Romesco. You also get to roast a pepper, or in my case, a lot of them since I made a bunch of this sauce to keep in the freezer. And, since I never get tired of the pictures, here are some pictures of the peppers roasting.

Now we have braised garlic and roasted peppers– one more ingredient to prep. The almonds. I was only able to find raw ones that day (and if the government has its way, I won’t be able to easily find them again due to two salmonella outbreaks linked to raw almonds in 2001 and 2004… yes, two outbreaks years ago). Raw almonds still include their skins.

To remove them, dunk them in boiling water for about a minute and then ice water. After that, the skin should slip off easily for the most part.

Now, at this point, I should be showing you how I toasted the almonds after I slivered them. But instead I slivered them and threw them in the food processor with everything else and forgot to toast them. Overall, it wasn’t that bad of a mistake. The sauce was a bit grainier than it should have been but still very edible.

So in the food processor we have a lot more than one recipe worth of Romesco ingredients. If you want to make one portion (about 1.5 cups) use the following proportions: roasted red pepper (the equivalent of 1 bell), braised garlic (2 tablespoons), almonds (1/2 cup, that should be toasted), one clove of garlic, champagne vinegar (2 tablespoons), caraway seed and ground cumin (1/2 teaspoon each), sea salt (2 teaspoons), and water (up to one cup). Blend all of the ingredients adding the water as needed to create a smooth sauce. The sauce can be kept refrigerated for a week.

Or, divide into ice cube trays and freeze!