What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Also, broccoli dressed with evoo, red pepper flakes, fresh tarragon, salt and pepper, roasted until nicely caramelized on both sides. I am loving this method for broccoli.

Interesting. I LOVE roasted vegetables, especially when they get brown and caramelized. Brussels sprouts and cauliflower are my favorites. However, I have done broccoli this way several times now and really don't care for it. It gets kind of strange burnt/bitter flavor when I roast it. Is there a secret?

(My favorite way to do broccoli is to steam it until almost tender in a frying pan, then add EVOO, sliced fresh garlic, kosher salt, lemon zest and red pepper flakes. I cover it and give it a good shake, and cook until the garlic gets very lightly browned. I could eat two crowns of it this way all by myself.)

Len has a late tee time today so I'm thinking of getting some lamb shanks to braise until he gets home. Kind of in the mood for that. I think I'll get an extra one and do lamb shephard's pie with that (shredded) and the leftover sauce that is always too good to throw down the drain!

Last night I made a pretty tasty baba ganoush with roasted eggplant and roasted poblano peppers. Nothing else added except olive oil and salt. Spicier than we usually have our food, but very tasty for me and a wonderful component to today's lunch. Am curious what my wife thought of it in her lunch, because her Northern Love of mild flavors usually can't take very much heat! Will find out later when we both get home.

[Jenise]

Len has a late tee time today so I'm thinking of getting some lamb shanks to braise until he gets home. Kind of in the mood for that. I think I'll get an extra one and do lamb shephard's pie with that (shredded) and the leftover sauce that is always too good to throw down the drain!

Now that's smart!

Interesting. I LOVE roasted vegetables, especially when they get brown and caramelized. Brussels sprouts and cauliflower are my favorites. However, I have done broccoli this way several times now and really don't care for it. It gets kind of strange burnt/bitter flavor when I roast it. Is there a secret?

Secret? I don't think so. However, I have only done it with broccoli just picked, that I get at the Farmer's Market. Since the method is new to me since Spring. I have not tried it with store bought. Mine is not bitter, nor burnt. I do it at 400° and do not use a dark baking sheet. I use one of my light ones and put non-stick foil down. I also use a fair amount of evoo. They brown fast and I make sure I cut them so that the little trees lay flat on the foil, at least on one side. I do turn them, to brown the other side.

[Jenise]

I'm with Carrie. Love carmelization on sprouts and cauliflower but browned broccoli doesn't work for me.

Tonight's neighborhood wine tasting night, and the topic is Malbec so I made some rare roast beef spring rolls that I halved and arranged cut side up, all the better to show the pretty red and green colors and receive a drizzle of chimichurri sauce.

Here's my report on the Shepherd's Pie. Of course, my grocer here in "rural" Maine didn't have lamb shanks. They did have 1/2" cross-cut slices of leg of lamb. I bought all three slices, as well as a package of ground lamb to accomplish what I had set out to do. The sliced lamb didn't braise very well. Although tender, it got pretty dried out. We used a lot of the sauce to eat it. I had also made a generous amount of mashed Yukon Golds (skin on) with a little cream cheese, half and half and butter, and then roasted carrots and brussels sprouts. I used the leftovers, sautéed ground lamb and some frozen baby peas, and topped it all with a bit of grated Vermont extra sharp cheddar to make the pie. Have to say it was much better than the first night's dinner!

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I made pork lo mein last night. The pork was "boneless spareribs" from a local Chinese restaurant, sliced into shreds, then stir-fried with bean sprouts and sliced onions, snow peas, and wood ear mushrooms. Seasoned with oyster sauce and soy sauce.

-Paul W.

Breakfast this morning was a home made pesto and cheese omelet with marinated tomatoes, serrano peppers and green onion. Gene grilled half of a ring bologna and we served with beautiful seedless purple grapes grown locally.

[Jenise]

Hubby's out of town so dinner tonight was my usual ridiculous kind of girlie mono-meal: very little planning went into it, and very little effort was involved in making it. I so admire the singles out there like Paul who make real meals--for myself, I never would. Ergo, dinner was a bowl of pan-fried cabbage seasoned with a few spoonfulls of tart and spicy Patak's hot Indian mango pickle. When I realized afterward I was still a little hungry? I ate a tomato, raw, like an apple. Tomorrow I'm on my again. Might make the same damned thing all over again.

Shanghai red-cooked chicken for dinner tonight.

-Paul W.

Dinner tonight is a flank steak from a local, organic ranch, marinated in a couple chipotle peppers in adobo, with a little soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, cumin, and lime zest. Also, Anasazi beans cooked with red onion, sweet onion, garlic, adobo sauce, hatch chile, dry mustard, smoked paprika, tomato paste. Veggies are steamed green beans, finished off with a quick sauté in clarified butter, a little cinnamon and fresh, chopped tomatoes thrown in at the end. If I remember, a little lime zest over the top prior to serving.

Last minute fridge/freezer raid: grilled pork tenderloin massaged with some pomegranate molasses and ras el hanout served with Moroccan tomato jam made 2 weeks ago when I couldn't keep up with the tomatoes. Seared shishito peppers and garlic, also a garden surplus that had to be used up.

[Jenise]

Tonight a friend* is coming over with all the tomatoes she hasn't been able to use and we're going to make a vat of amatriciana sauce for buccatini, we're going to test a recipe for an herb and garlic spread from the Lyon area called cervelle de canut for an upcoming event, and I'm going to teach her to make salsa.

*Her tomatoes all had very yellow, then orange shoulders on them and apparently she's been waiting all this time for that part to turn red, and instead the tomatoes are getting spotty and those bed-sore like blisters because they've been on the vine way too long. What a tragedy to grow all those (when I've visited their house, I've been quite envious of her prodigious crop) tomatoes and not know enough to pick them in their prime! She pretty much puts them in salads, which she doesn't make often, or makes salsa with them but little else. Sad!

What did you end up doing with those tomatoes?

Beijing meat sauce noodles for dinner tonight.

-Paul W.

Last night it was 6 meaty short ribs (special cut for even thickness on each one) were braised with carrots, onions, garlic, Shiraz, home made beef stock, and shallots, for three hours. Thyme and Rosemary sprigs, were placed all around the meat. Served with a mixture we love, of steamed cauliflower and Yukon Gold spuds put through a ricer, then dressed with low-fat buttermilk, Mama Sattva's Ghee (a local product) seasoned salt and lots of garlic chives. I found tomatoes at the Farmer's Market I had never seen before. They were a brilliant red, about the size of a walnut, oval in shape and the taste was excellent. They went into a salad of kalamata olives, a little red onion, cucumbers, butter lettuce, a little Israeli Feta, with a Country French Vinaigrette. Tonight is leftovers....with corn on the cob. Perfect meal for our unseasonable overcast skies, cooler temps, with a promise of rain we have yet to see on this side of the river.

Was wracking my brain on the way home trying to figure out a quick meal and decided on pasta with tuna. Then I remembered that we had a jar of tuna that a friend of ours canned. He cans it with bay leaf and peppercorns, and it's a completely different animal from any commercially produced canned tuna I've had. I put that into a bowl with the oil it was canned in. To this I added lemon juice, lemon zest, diced preserved lemon, a generous handful of chopped basil, capers, and plenty of ground pepper. After mixing it up, I threw it into the microwave to warm it just a bit and then tossed it with bucatini. It was a hit.

To this I added lemon juice, lemon zest, diced preserved lemon, a generous handful of chopped basil, capers, and plenty of ground pepper. After mixing it up, I threw it into the microwave to warm it just a bit and then tossed it with bucatini. It was a hit.

Love that Idea, I am stealing it.

Tonight at our casa it is a minestrone soup, old family recipe our kids loved. Sauté onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Add two cans of a good tomato paste, 2 quarts water, 1 can beef consumé or homemade beef stock, cabbage, frozen peas (( added a package of frozen Chinese Long Beans from my garden last year) and Swiss Chard (stem removed) salt, pepper and fresh rosemary to taste. and a few rinds of Parmesan Cheese (if you freeze them) Bring to boil, then simmer one hour. Add 1 can red kidney beans, drained, 1 cup elbow macaroni, simmer 30 minutes more. Taste, adjust seasonings, and add more fresh rosemary if desired. Serve with grated Parmesan Reggiano. Serve with cheese bread stick or crusty country bread, and a robust red.

Lovely dinner tonight. Scrambled eggs, sweet potato pancakes flavored with a bit of ground cardamom, baba ganoush topped with basil, sauteed corn, and guacamole. All of which went very well with a 2011 DeMoor Chablis Bel Air et Clardy. Nice times.

[Jenise]

Tonight I'm having a neighborhood couple over for dinner. We're collaborating on a white wine course for our next neighborhood wine dinner, in which my executive committee and I are doing all the food. To pitch one of my ideas, I'm going to serve them a deconstructed tomato and shrimp bisque, wherein the soup is truly just a tomato bisque made from all fresh ingredients and, for wow factor, a single fried shrimp is suspended over the bowl on a wooden skewer. It's an idea that has only existed in my head until now, but I can't wait to put it on the table. That will be the first course, followed by Zuni Café's amazing version of Roast Chicken and bread salad.

Tonight at our casa it is a minestrone soup, old family recipe our kids loved. Sauté onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Add two cans of a good tomato paste, 2 quarts water, 1 can beef consumé or homemade beef stock, cabbage, frozen peas (( added a package of frozen Chinese Long Beans from my garden last year) and Swiss Chard (stem removed) salt, pepper and fresh rosemary to taste. and a few rinds of Parmesan Cheese (if you freeze them) Bring to boil, then simmer one hour. Add 1 can red kidney beans, drained, 1 cup elbow macaroni, simmer 30 minutes more. Taste, adjust seasonings, and add more fresh rosemary if desired. Serve with grated Parmesan Reggiano. Serve with cheese bread stick or crusty country bread, and a robust red.

Speaking of minestrone soup, I've never been a fan of any soup with tomato in it other than "Tomato Soup" or Gazpacho. But this month's Bon Appetit has a recipe for Minestrone without tomato. http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/squash-and-bean-minestrone. I don't think I have ever seen that before, so I'm definitely going to try it! They serve it with an arugula salsa verde that has tomato in it, that you can stir into the individual bowl. I think I'm going to try it. (Yours sounds good too, minus the tomato paste. )

[Jenise]

Carrie, tonight I'm making Shepherds Pie, and it's your fault. The pix of yours reminded me that I haven't made one in about 5 or 6 years, and tonight's the night. However, since it's all "dinner & a movie night" here at Chez J, and the movie is Les Miz, my pie's going Frenchy with beef, herbs d' Provence, and the mashed potato topping will be topped with white truffle oil.

...and the movie is Les Miz,

No, stop, don't! Save yourself while you still can!