What's Cooking (Take Two!)

On the one hand, lasagna sounds a little heavy for summer food. On the other hand, it's lasagna and I really love lasagna. Can't blame that squash guy.

I made chicken/shrimp/andouille gumbo and had the boys over on Saturday night. It came out very nicely, particularly as I managed to avoid scorching the roux this time. It didn't quite have the depth of the gumbo I had at K-Paul, though, despite my use of a very rich chicken broth and the black roux. I wonder if they didn't cheat with some beef broth at K-Paul? In any case, it was well received. Served it with plain white rice and had a tomato tart to start. The tart was nothing more than puff pastry that as baked, covered with goat cheese as soon as it was out of the oven, and then put back into the warm oven with some thick slices of perfect tomatoes. Only weird thing was that the puff pastry didn't really puff. It didn't really mess it up too much, making for a thinner, crisper base rather than a light and fluffy one, but it was still weird. There was also plenty of wine and an impromptu cognac tasting with cigars afterward. Nice evening.

Mike,

I use the chicken and andouille recipe from Paul Prudhomme's "Louisiana Kitchen" cookbook (his first book). It comes out nearly identical to what I had at K-Paul's back in 1986. In this recipe you dredge the chicken in seasoned flour and fry it, then cut it up into boneless chunks. It gets added to the gumbo rather late in the cooking. Perhaps the frying is responsible for the richer flavor. Or maybe it's the brand of andouille you used?

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Lunch today: corn on the cob from Merwyn's farm. (We go around the house to the back 40, pick what we want, and leave money in the box.) Best yellow corn on the planet--tastes real, not too sweet or starchy.

Dinner: rack of lamb with vaudovan and coconut crust, baby broccoli, romaine salad with watermelon radishes. Might open my one and only 88 Latour.

[Robin Garr]

Remembering the earthquake destruction in Amatrice, I made spaghetti with spicy tomatoes in the fashion of all'amatriciana tonight. To work in a flavor element in lieu of guanciale, which I didn't want to use becuase animal flesh, I used plenty of Italian Parma butter to saute the fresh tomatoes, onion and garlic with black pepper and dried red pepper to make a quick sauce. Also based on what was available, I dusted it with grated Parmigiano Reggiano in place of the Pecorino Romano that I didn't have. And spaghetti because I didn't have bucatini on hand. So, not really all'amatriciana at all, but a tasty, gently spicy marinara in the style of Amatrice.

amatriciana.jpg

[Jenise]

Tonight's dinner is also a cab franc blind tasting with friends, so I'm serving what I think is a Sunday kind of French family meal. A repeat of the Beef Bourgogne Nicoise I raved about a few weeks ago, but this time served over a light crispy crouton of fried bread instead of pasta. The preceding courses are some incredibly sweet cold seared Alaskan weathervane scallops with a lime-chili vinaigrette for gnoshing, and then a simple salad of various soft greens with a chive-mustard dressing.

We had a couple of friends over for supper last night and I ended up making coq au vin blanc to serve with a couple of chenins. Served the chicken over rice with roasted broccoli on the side. My wife made lovely self-saucing lemon puddings ("pudding" being used in the English sense of the word) for dessert.

[Jenise]

I've got Coq au Vin on the brain, too, Mike. Coming up soon!

Today for lunch we utilized the leftover puffy bread from yesterday's dinner and made grilled green chili and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Absolutely one of my favorite things in the world, that, and I really loaded these: three chiles per sandwich.

[Jenise]

Dinner tonight, sticking with the Meatless Monday regime, will be a fresh tomato salad followed by that pasta dish whose name escapes me, but the one that's just pasta, olive oil, pecorino and black pepper.

Cacio e pepe?

[Jenise]

That's the one. Made it with a 'Barolo Taglione' pasta purchased at a cool Italian deli. Fantastic! Made four main course portions so I invited the neighbors over to share, and they in turn shared a rack of lamb. Great meal with friends.

[Jenise]

Tonight: fresh Dungeness crab roasted Vietnamese style with lemon grass and garlic, corn fried rice, mixed oriental mushrooms and bok choy.

Tonight: Couscous Royale. I simmered carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, broccoli, mushrooms, and enough garlic to merit calling it out as a vegetable in a broth spiked with butternut squash oil and ras el-hanout. Served over a very delicate batch of whole wheat couscous. Pan-seared swordfish accompanied.

[Jenise]

Tonight: Couscous Royale. I simmered carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, broccoli, mushrooms, and enough garlic to merit calling it out as a vegetable in a broth spiked with butternut squash oil and ras el-hanout. Served over a very delicate batch of whole wheat couscous. Pan-seared swordfish accompanied.

Where's the cheese? Can't be a 'Royale' without cheese. Samuel Jackson says so.

[Jenise]

Tonight: a comfort-food favorite! Bangers and Mash.

We had our Labor Day weekend block party last night. I made hot and sour coleslaw, guacamole, and was set to grill burgers. As it turned out, there were several other bowls of guacamole and there was so much other food that we never ended up grilling the burgers. So tonight, we had burgers with guac on them and leftover coleslaw.

One of my favorite meals. Grilled marinated loin lamb chops.Baked potato and sliced tomato fresh from the garden. Simple, but oh so good.

[Jenise]

We had our Labor Day weekend block party last night. I made hot and sour coleslaw, guacamole, and was set to grill burgers. As it turned out, there were several other bowls of guacamole and there was so much other food that we never ended up grilling the burgers. So tonight, we had burgers with guac on them and leftover coleslaw.

Speaking of guac, have you tried the smoked almond and blue cheese recipe I posted a few months ago yet? (Not my recipe, but one from a restaurant in New York.) It will change you!

[Jenise]

One of my favorite meals. Grilled marinated loin lamb chops.Baked potato and sliced tomato fresh from the garden. Simple, but oh so good.

There's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes simple is best.

We had our Labor Day weekend block party last night. I made hot and sour coleslaw, guacamole, and was set to grill burgers. As it turned out, there were several other bowls of guacamole and there was so much other food that we never ended up grilling the burgers. So tonight, we had burgers with guac on them and leftover coleslaw.

Speaking of guac, have you tried the smoked almond and blue cheese recipe I posted a few months ago yet? (Not my recipe, but one from a restaurant in New York.) It will change you!

Haven't tried that one yet. It sounds great, though.

So in our last episode, as you'll recall, I made a bunch of burgers to grill for Labor Day and then did not end up grilling them. Unfortunately, they sat out for several hours while the decisions involving their fate were being made and that left me a little less than thrilled about eating them at the medium rare level required for burgers. So last night, I dumped the beef in a skillet, and sauteed it with some onions, garlic, and spices. Then I chopped up some homegrown tomatoes that had gotten a bit overly soft for caprese and simmered the whole mess until the tomatoes cooked down. I figured I could freeze this stuff and use it in pasta sauce, risotto, etc. But then I got home kinda late tonight and decided I'd use some of this to add some extra flavor to a blue box of Kraft mac and cheese. (Homemade hamburger helper, anyone?) It was pretty much exactly what you'd expect - a little taste of the mid-1960's.

Not wanting anything growing in my yard to go to waste, I made a cordial from the plethora of elderflowers in late spring. Fragrant flower heads soaked in water, lemon juice, lemon zest sugar and sour salt [ citric acid]. The strained cordial was terrific over fresh raspberries also from "the back 40 ". The rest went into the freezer and came out this weekend for a panna cotta parfait. A layer of elderflower cordial flavored panna sweetened with jaggery topped with a clear elderflower cordial gelee and a few late crop raspberries. Just sublime. Hoping for as large a crop next year. The birds decimate the elderberries and always regretted not getting a crop of berries but the flowers are even better. Should've made more .....

Also on a pickle jag...garlic dilled carrots; dilled green tomatoes; dilled green beans; bread and butter cucumber; turnips; red onion; cauliflower. A few jars of each just to grab for appetizer or condiment -often as a last minute inspiration. Also endless possibilities to jazz up a salad.
Highly recommend Sean Brock's dilled green tomatoes. Cauliflowers and red onion from Einat Armody's Balaboosta cookbook.

[Jenise]

CHRISTINA!!!!

I must have conjured you up. Just yesterday, really just YESTERDAY, I was thinking of you, as I contemplated whether I had the time to make the Russian layered fish-in-pastry thing whose name escapes me for an all-chardonnay tasting I'm hosting at home tonight. I determined I did not (I know, chicken!).

That made me make a note to look up your address and see what you're up to. I realize people fall away from time to time but I was just hoping that everything in your world is okay, and wanted to say so.

So there, now I said it!

What a remarkable bunch of creativity you've been up to. Just a few days ago I had my hands on a book about pickling (both in jars or quick pickles for near-term consumption) that has the word 'fermenting' or 'fermentation' in the title. I very nearly bought it, but looking at my schedule for the next few weeks which is optimum time for such activity, and in which I have no spare time, I didn't buy it thinking it would make me feel like a loser because I'd want to do all these things but logically wouldn't get around to them! Am I just rationalizing?

[Jenise]

Speaking of tonight's wine tasting dinner, I'm serving courses I can do most of the work ahead for (except baking in the two cases where that's required), then just pass the food at the table. The tasting is the important thing, not my food, although I suppose it's part of what makes the 30 minute drive to my house worth it. I just can't break up the action by taking long breaks in the kitchen.

The wine theme is Chardonnay The World Over and I'm serving a vegetable-intense Mediterranean menu:

Carpaccio: golden beets, crumbled chevre, shaved fennel, shaved red onion, dill, olive oil, lemon juice
Pizza: pesto, sauteed maitake mushroom, grated/dessicated zucchini, local mozzarella, parmesan
Seafood: confit of local tuna (I butchered the whole fish myself!) on white beans with rosemary and roasted cherry toms
Tarts: puff-pastry wrapped whole large mushrooms stuffed with foie gras
Terrine: roasted ham, orange rind confit, mustard greens, molded in gelee served on brussels sprouts slaw with diced jewels of rhubarb-sumac aspic