What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

So a week ago I cut a small boneless leg of lamb in two and, remembering the clove-y taste of the scotch broth of my childhood (the Campbell's version; I know, but I loved it) I studded each with cloves, threw in a branch of fresh rosemary, and vacuum-packed them. One went into a sous vide bath for dinner, and the other saved for a conventional roast this week. Was going to be yesterday. But Tuesday night's Chile Relleno pie wasn't out of my system yet, so I needed Mexican food. And the last great lamb I ate was several months ago when someone brought a garlicky freshly smoked medium rare leg of lamb to a wine tasting--OMG, so good.

So all three ideas melded into one solid plan: smoked lamb tacos. We smoked the lamb for about 90 minutes on the propane grill, brought it in around 100F, seared it off for color, rubbed it with garlic salt, and put it into the oven for an hour at 250 to slow-roast to about 137F. Slices went into warm corn tortillas with slivered sweet onions soaked in lime juice and an arugula salad. DIVINE.

Tonight we're experimenting with socially distanced entertaining. Friends are coming over to share ribs and pickled corn on the patio. Each couple will bring their own wine glasses and tools (their idea, I didn't insist) and be assigned a pair of tongs from my drawer for their personal use in serving themselves food.

[Robin Garr]

It’s risotto Saturday! Let’s roast a bunch of asparagus, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, garlic, and Beyond Meat sausages and then make risotto!

[Jenise]

Another social-distancing dinner tonight. Same plan as Thursday: two couples, outside, each couple side by side at either end of a long table, everyone provides their own plates/cutlery/glassware, the food is served on platters, each couple gets a pair of tongs for serving themselves, bottles of wine are passed with gloves on.

Feeling Italian today. I'm serving chevre and rosemary stuffed mushrooms, grilled artisan romaine halves with pureed pepper dressing, chicken leg-thigh combos roasted with onion, herb, wine and tomatoes on farfalle.

Mmm, grilled lettuces! It still sounds odd to my raised-on-iceberg ears but I have loved it every time I've had it.

I'm making my own chicken stock for the first time today from the bags of chicken scraps I've been collecting and freezing.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

We had guests over on Saturday night for chicken leg-thighs skillet-roasted with wine, herbs, onion, garlic and tomatoes. The store I shopped at only had whole chix or wings, so I bought two whole chickens and broke them down. Four breasts went into the freezer and the rest of the parts made two quarts of intense stock.

Yesterday we had halibut and asparagus.

Tonight we're having hamburgers--one of our favorite combos with pickled onions, havarti cheese, green chiles and arugula since I actually happen to have everything needed, including some two week old buns and arugula that's won't last much longer.

I’m not sure about dinner but today I have dealt with most of the first round of green tomatoes...green tomato relish and green tomato chutney.

[Jenise]

Mmm, grilled lettuces! It still sounds odd to my raised-on-iceberg ears but I have loved it every time I've had it.

It's so fantastic having an indoor grill, being able to decide on the fly "hey, why I don't grill them". Adds an interesting flavor. And the pepper dressing came out of that "my first cookbook" book. The result of throwing, natch, 1 whole pimiento (I used jarred piquillos), 1 green bell pepper, onion, garlic, oil and vinegar together in the blender. The result is quite delicious, and to their recipe I added whole roasted hazelnuts which gave it better flavor, a nice grainy texture plus creaminess. It seemed incomplete until I did that. But scooped on top of the romaine halves? GREAT.

What's Cooking?

Nothing!

More local restaurants have started deliveries, so tonight we are having a Deliveroo from a nearby Italian that we have often talked about going to but never quite made it there.

My night off!

The result is quite delicious, and to their recipe I added whole roasted hazelnuts which gave it better flavor, a nice grainy texture plus creaminess.

Oh, I haz sad: the last batch of hazelnuts I bought were over-roasted. So burn-y I had to get rid of them.

[Jenise]

Nothing more annoying than burnt nuts!

But I actually mean that seriously. Mine came from a local hazelnut farmer who sold them shelled and roasted, and many are overroasted so I have to pick thru them...

Nothing more annoying than burnt nuts!

Ouch. I'll second that.

[Jenise]

Last night, we had slices of curry-cured chicken breast on dill basmati rice with lacey fried fennel. By curry-cured, I mean that I'm a fan of the Zuni Cafe school of chicken roasting, wherein chicken is salted 24 hours in advance of cooking. Add curry powder to that, and you get a true thru-flavor of both in the final cook, which is juicier and more intense than untreated chicken.

Tonight we're having friends over for a socially distanced dinner or stuffed artichokes with pizza bread (pesto base, mozz, parm) that I'm trying out today with a pourable dough.

I ordered some morels (splitting with friends) from Oregon several weeks ago, but tough harvest and foragers weren't bringing in enough. Got notice Tues they had and were shipping, arrived Wed. Split up and delivered, our portion was 1.5 lbs. Unfortunately arrival coincided with a couple nights I was planning on not having wine. But still enjoyed:
sauteed morels in soft scrambled eggs
a wild mushroom soup that usually incorporate dried morels, Betsy used fresh (along with maitakes and creminis)
spaghetti with asparagus and morels
All delicious. I'm just poorer.

I ordered some morels (splitting with friends) from Oregon several weeks ago, but tough harvest and foragers weren't bringing in enough. Got notice Tues they had and were shipping, arrived Wed. Split up and delivered, our portion was 1.5 lbs. Unfortunately arrival coincided with a couple nights I was planning on not having wine. But still enjoyed:
sauteed morels in soft scrambled eggs
a wild mushroom soup that usually incorporate dried morels, Betsy used fresh (along with maitakes and creminis)
spaghetti with asparagus and morels
All delicious. I'm just poorer.

Good call! I've been eyeing a pound of fresh Oregon morels from a restaurant purveyor in town. $45.

that's actually slightly cheaper than our worked out with priority overnight ($209/4 lbs). I should have gotten a bigger consortium - at 10 lbs free shipping. But Oregon Mushroom Company is great, they usually ship out in afternoon what came in that morning. We could have stretched over couple more days, but Betsy is a believer in you see 'em, you cook 'em.

...but Betsy is a believer in you see 'em, you cook 'em.

Smart lady. Stinky old shrooms are bad to eat and, at that price, you feel bad, too.

Nice work. We don't get morels here and I never considered shipping. But such things are truly a delight.

Lovely meal here last night, a glorious piece of NC tuna baked and covered in a sauce of peas (yes, spring is rolling here) and roasted chestnuts sauteed in butter and finished with lime. (Also had rice and kale). Wine was not on the menu for us either, but it was a lovely end to a warm day with a crisp refreshing Ponysaurus Bière De Garde (local farmhouse ale).

[Jenise]

Rahsaan, your dish sounds fantastic. Tuna is caught in our local waters but always ends up in cans, you never see it available fresh--I don't get it.

We're doing scallops tonight. Someone mentioned Coquilles St. Jacques and that lit my brain on fire--not a fan of all the heavy cream and cheese but am plotting on a way to lighten it up. I have scallops and fresh shitakes on hand, and fresh tarragon in the garden.

Tuna is caught in our local waters but always ends up in cans, you never see it available fresh--I don't get it.

Bizarre. Fresh tuna isn't exactly an esoteric preparation. But there must be a logic.

We're doing scallops tonight. Someone mentioned Coquilles St. Jacques and that lit my brain on fire--not a fan of all the heavy cream and cheese but am plotting on a way to lighten it up.

Ha! We had scallops for lunch. I agree, no need to get involved with cream and cheese. I served them in a noodle soup with peas and fennel fronds, where the broth was based on garlic scapes and soy sauce.

I made one of my favorite breakfasts this morning: huevos rancheros with my colorado sauce I posted here some time ago.

I used some premium cage-free brown eggs I picked up for a song at Smith's. There were a bunch marked down to 0.79/doz. Second time that's happened to me. My theory is that many people are leery of anything but white shells. Sad, but good for me.

[Jenise]

Don't tell me people are racist about eggs! That aside, I have generally found that people prefer brown. Probably because most of us grew up with all-white so the brown look more exotic though I have detected no difference in commercially produced eggs based on color alone.

I actually love huevos rancheros, and you have me drooling at the thought. Best I ever had was in a dive bar in Tiajuana, complete with chunks of crispy carnitas. Yowzir.

It's Sunday, so we have a roast.

I'm just heading down to the kitchen to start on it. We have a Topside of Beef, and with it will go

Roast potatoes and parsnip, Yorkshire pudding, steamed cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. (I'm now on the last bag of carrots as we got three large bags of carrots when we thought we'd just ordered 3 carrots.

Accompanied by gravy, horseradish sauce and/or Colman's English mustard

35 minutes before it's on the table I'll pour a glass of Pongracz Methode Cap Classique sparkling wine from the Cape as aperitif and with the beef we'll have Ernie Els 'Proprietors Blend' 2013 (Stellenbosch) , a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Shiraz, 5% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 5% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot.

Nothing exotic but we do enjoy a roast

[Jenise]

Peter, it's interesting that you stick with the Sunday roast tradition. It has never been a tradition in my household, but this damned virus has me seeking comfort even to the point of adopting traditions I've only seen from afar and Sunday roast would be a great place to start. Unfortunately, I don't have any roast-size pieces of meat.

Closest I can get is to thaw a giant tomahawk rib steak for barbecuing. Probably a really good Bordeaux with that.