What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Dinner last night was Punjabi chicken with fenugreek leaves.

-Paul W.

Mom's Day supper last night was one of my wife's favorites: meat loaf and mashed potatoes. To go with that, we had roasted asparagus and custards made with morels and garlic chives,

[Jenise]

Last night, we had a green salad followed by chicken ravioli in a pesto broth.

Today's Meatless Monday, so probably a sauteed vegetable couscous.

Salmon Day again. Tomorrow, dinner with friends at an Austrian restaurant. Wednesday pot roast. Thursday dinner in the cellar. Friday... well, probably pot roast but ::shakes Magic 8-Ball:: reply hazy, try again later.

[Jenise]

Sue Courtney arrives today!!!!!! And lucky her, it's Dork Night, so she's going to be doing some fine wine tasting tonight in a friend's backyard. Grilled salmon and roasted vegetables will be provided by the host. I'll add a potato/fennel/mustard/herb salad for dinner and an appie (the blue cheese and smoked almond guacamole I posted recently).

Rabbit casserole tonight, great for a wintery evening.

[Jenise]

For Sue we made Chinese five spice smoked duck, vegetable fried rice, and smashed cucumbers.

So lunch was rabbit pie made from the leftovers of the rabbit casserole and some extra mushrooms.
And tonight will be Hiananese chicken rice.

Last night, we had roast chicken with a side of sauteed asparagus, morels, favas, and pancetta served over cheesy grits. The cheese in the grits was a truffled burrata that showed up around here recently.

[Jenise]

We got home from a weekend in Lake Havasu yesterday and picked up a rib eye and a handful of fresh ramps at the new Whole Foods Market on our way home from the airport. We 'reverse smoked' the rib eye, putting it in the barbecue for 'indirect' smoking for about an hour, until it reached an internal temp of about 110 F. Then we rested it for ten minutes, rubbed it with a mix of salt/sugar/pepper and seared it for about three minutes for the final cook. After another ten minute rest, we had the most perfectly rare steak imaginable (warm rare, that is, no blue meat for the Stones!) lightly redolent of smoldering applewood, sliced and served on the ramps and drizzled with a bit of chopped green olives in garlic with olive oil and a touch of lemon juice. Major yum.

We got home from a weekend in Lake Havasu yesterday and picked up a rib eye and a handful of fresh ramps at the new Whole Foods Market on our way home from the airport. We 'reverse smoked' the rib eye, putting it in the barbecue for 'indirect' smoking for about an hour, until it reached an internal temp of about 110 F. Then we rested it for ten minutes, rubbed it with a mix of salt/sugar/pepper and seared it for about three minutes for the final cook. After another ten minute rest, we had the most perfectly rare steak imaginable (warm rare, that is, no blue meat for the Stones!) lightly redolent of smoldering applewood, sliced and served on the ramps and drizzled with a bit of chopped green olives in garlic with olive oil and a touch of lemon juice. Major yum.

That does sound really good.

For Mother's Day, two tarts, both more or less from Christine Ferber's "Mes tartes".

Chèvre et asperges

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Crème fraîche et fraises

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I have always been pleased with the results from this cookbook, but these recipes are really not made for the home cook. The pâte is labeled in grams and imperial units, but very inconvenient for making single pies. In one case, the tart called for a 1/4 recipe of pastry.

And tonight, I was craving poutine. Gouda cheese curds from the farmer's market, duck fat fries from big Yukon golds baked and broiled in the oven, and roux gravy. However, I was out of frozen demi glace, and so the delicious gravy was made from a drained Tetrapak of chicken noodle soup and a hearty dash of Accent (MSG). Yum. I keep reading about various San Francisco restaurants that have poutine, but I've yet to have an acceptable version outside Canada. There's a chain in Berkeley that's supposed to be the real deal, but it's not that difficult to make if you can find the curds. Paired with aged Le Fin du Monde, a Belgian-style trippel from Unibroue in Quebec.

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[Jenise]

Walt, your tarts are just stunning. One of the funnest things about making food of this type, vs. a standard dinner, is all the hours you can spend sitting around admiring your work before cutting it up. Most platings, however lovely otherwise, exist for only minutes.

Your poutine looks good! Best I've had was at a restaurant in Whistler BC--shoestring potatoes, chopped garlic, demi-glace and cow's milk feta. The worst was at a little café somewhere on the way to the Okanagan valley. VERY Midwestern--crinkle cut frozen fries, oven baked, with canned gravy and a rubbery young supermarket orange-colored cheese that was too mild to qualify as cheddar. I haven't had it in the States, though I did very recently see it on a menu somewhere--just can't remember where!


Our dinner tonight: Linguine in a broccoli rabe/walnut/pecorino pesto. Tomato salad to start.

[Robin Garr]

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We make this risotto often during asparagus season. This time Milanese, with saffron.

Not usually one to buy prepared foods, but last week at farmer's market both places that have ramps in spring were sold out, but one place had ramp pesto, so got small jar. So last night I used the Ottolenghi Plenty poaching liquid (wine, olive oil, lemon, bay, onion, celery) to poach some leeks, carrots, and green beans. Chopped and tossed some with the pesto and some pasta, saved lunch today. Saving the liquid to use again (maybe for fish).

[Jenise]

Dale, a ramp pesto? That sounds delish. Whole Foods Market was officially out of ramps yesterday so that little treat has left my world, but I sure loved the two batches we got. I wonder why they don't grow here? I would think they could.

I have a piece of halibut to cook for dinner tonight. Bought it at WF yesterday and planned to make it for dinner, but we were both starving (no lunch) when we shopped and succombed to two slices of their wood-fire pizza. By the time we got home, we weren't as hungry as we expected to be, so we settled for a salad and a bowl of cherries. I'll roast the halibut tonight. BUT, when we bought it? We perused the available fish and settled on halibut, and I asked the fishcounter guy to dig down one layer to see if the second piece had white skin "because white is better."

The fish guy was black.

"OH SHIT," I said. "That did not come out right." He laughed and graciously sat through my explanation of the textural differences between the top and belly sides, and why I prefer belly. He had not heard this before. Alaskans who have access to halibut frequently like I used to tend to form a preference one way or the other.

He also gave me a piece of Paiche (pronounced PIE-chay) to try, a very large, pike-like Brazilian river fish that's now being farmed for sustainabilty. I'll report back!

I have a piece of halibut to cook for dinner tonight. Bought it at WF yesterday and planned to make it for dinner, but we were both starving (no lunch) when we shopped and succombed to two slices of their wood-fire pizza. By the time we got home, we weren't as hungry as we expected to be, so we settled for a salad and a bowl of cherries. I'll roast the halibut tonight. BUT, when we bought it? We perused the available fish and settled on halibut, and I asked the fishcounter guy to dig down one layer to see if the second piece had white skin "because white is better."

The fish guy was black.

"OH SHIT," I said. "That did not come out right." He laughed and graciously sat through my explanation of the textural differences between the top and belly sides, and why I prefer belly. He had not heard this before. Alaskans who have access to halibut frequently like I used to tend to form a preference one way or the other.
!

BWAHAHAHAA!

Not usually one to buy prepared foods, but last week at farmer's market both places that have ramps in spring were sold out, but one place had ramp pesto, so got small jar..

I'm also not big on prepared foods, but when we're talking about farmers markets products with not many ingredients, I can be swayed. I've been buying bärlauch pesto in the farmers market for the past month or so and loving it. So easy to use and bring so much flavor to a dish (pasta obviously, but also sauteed mushrooms, beans, whatever).

Apparently bärlauch is ramson in English, which is the European version of ramps, but some go to great lengths to talk about their differences. Not sure I can really tell, but the garlicky pungency/flavor is certainly there!

Last night's dinner was Beijing meat sauce noodles. Tonight's dinner will be Gong Bao Ji Ding, but with cashews instead of peanuts.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I did pasta with a meat sauce last night, too, Paul. I was on the edge of going Chinese with a Dan-Dan style, but succombed to the urge for Italian that Bob was jonesing for.

I'm in empty-the-fridge mode, so today I turned three ears of corn, two chayote squash and a few jalapenos into a chowder that went into the fridge, and pressure cooked/trimmed/grilled four artichokes that are now marinating for a cold buffet dinner tonight that will include mixed olives, duck liver mousse and a hunk of Humboldt Fog. I'm really trying to get to zero!

Dinners on the grill: Tonight, shrimp skewers and quail. Made in advance for Tuesday: haddock. Made in advance for Friday: possibly the most beautiful bone-in ribeye (30-day age, grass fed/grain finish) that I've ever seen, 1.5" thick, black and blue now, to be cooked to completion -- whatever that means for you -- then.

For last night I cooked Lamb Shanks in red wine with root vegetables, served with roast potatoes and Savoy cabbage

I browned the shanks, lightly dusted in flour
then put in large pan with chunks of
carrot, parsnip, celeriac and a quartered medium size onion
added three small chillies finely chopped, garlic, several dashes of Worcestershire sauce, spoonful gravy powder,splash ketchup
then covered with red wine


Covered brought to boil then put in low temp oven (140C) for 3 hours. Meat was falling off bones. Turned off oven, left it there
Come dinner time, put in upper oven to keep warm while roasting pots.

Served with Spice Route Mourvedre. Lovely.

[Robin Garr]

Thai-style red curry with cauliflower and tofu. And lots of fresh cilantro from the garden.

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Thai-style red curry with cauliflower and tofu.

Is it the camera? My monitor? Why does that look like Thai yellow curry to me? My red curries are vibrant red.