Dinner time!

I promised a couple of weeks ago that I’d write about cooking dinner for the first time in my U.S. apartment. Warning: this blog is about to turn into a food blog.

First, people have been telling me that Buffalo is known for its food.  And it’s true!  After all, this is a home of Buffalo hot wings (more about them later). But there is so much more here. There are great places to eat everywhere. But it’s the stores that are quite something.  For example, there is a regional chain of supermarkets called Wegman’s in town (the headquarters are nearby, in upstate New York) and they are to grocery stores like Buckingham Palace is to, well, a cowherd’s hut.  You have to see it to believe it.

In some ways they are more even impressive than a food palace like Harrods’ food department (I was in London this summer) simply because this is not just fancy stuff on display for tourists or an occasional prince or two, it’s real, amazing food just for regular people on their way home from work.

This may also be the last time I’ll prepare dinner – the deli section at Wegman’s makes it absolutely unnecessary to cook dinner for yourself. It’s also less expensive.

Second, organic is the key word here. There’s a much wider selection of organic and gluten free products in stores in general than in Finland. There’s also a pretty good selection of lactose free milk, from fat free to 2 percent etc.) but not that many yogurts.

So here we go. I got a nice recipe of Apple Cauliflower Risotto from one of the local television shows, so that’s what I’m having as a side dish. Four of  Wegman’s lemon garlic chicken breasts will do nicely for the rest.

APPLE CAULIFLOWER RISOTTO WITH ONIONS AND SAGE

SERVES: 4 - 6

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups low sodium vegetable broth

1 cup water

1 medium onion, peeled and cut into small dice

3 Tbs olive oil

1 cup risotto rice ((Arborio or Carnaroli)   

1/2 cup dry white wine (optional but good)

3 Tbs fresh chopped sage

5 cups small thin sliced cauliflower florets

2 -3 Tbs olive oil (plus more as needed)

1 large apple, cored and thin sliced

approx. 1/3 - 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

- See more at: http://albany.twcnews.com/content/lifestyles/770195/apple-cauliflower-risotto-with-onions-and-sage/#sthash.8Qweg3hX.dpuf

The risotto turned out to be absolutely delicious (see the recipe above. I didn’t have any dry white  wine (only licensed liquor stores, like Finnish Alko, sell wine and spirits here) but I replaced it with some local hard cider called Woodchuck. They have a variety with hops in it – hence the name, Hopsation. It tastes pretty good, and hops-y, which is strange for cider, but it really brought out something extra in the dish, I think. If you can find some or anything similar, try it out.

And the chicken turned out pretty well too. Normally, I would have baked it in a bag the oven but I was more than a little intimidated by the size: my own, regular-size run-of the-mill comes-with-the condo oven is only half the size (well, two thirds). (I have a theory – it’s the Thanksgiving turkey: the oven must be big enough to cook a whole turkey!). Okay, I also didn’t have a pan to cook them in nor oven bags yet :-)