What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Artisan Hipster Pretzel hooray!

Whoa!!!

[Jenise]

Just got back from L.A. where the highlight of the weekend was co-hosting an evening with our old wine club. The wine theme was champagne, and to prove that this beverage is versatile and good at any time day or night, our three flight (four wines per flight) three-course meal consisted of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Also, since Annabelle's Chinese and I'm a French hybrid, our menu reflected a Chinese-French fusion.

Here's what we served:

Appetizers: cold, spicy shrimp
endive leaves stuffed with a tiny chopped salad of ham and daikon radish

First course: "Bacon and Eggs, Toast and Jam", individual Roquefort soufflés speared with a slice of crisp bacon accompanied by a slice of toast topped with a warm onion and orange 'marmalade'
Second course: "Light Lunch Salad", grilled lobster slices in tarragon vinaigrette, chive and cauliflower terrine, mizuna lettuce
Third course: "Dinner", crispy duck and brussels sprout spring roll, pork and macadamia nut stuffed broiled shitake mushrooms and crispy deep fried sushi ginger on an ancho chile sauce

Dessert: Three cheeses, Tokaji, Sauternes, and lemon-pine nut tart from a recipe by Marcella Hazan

I took my long awaited trip to Morocco last month. Since my return I have made a batch of Msemen (rghaif) each week to have for breakfast. This is a Moroccan flatbread that is ubiquitous. It is most often served as a breakfast staple with butter or olive oil and honey, but I saw it sold on the streets all times of the day. I learned to make this at the riad where I stayed. But, About.com has a pitch-perfect recipe that tastes exactly as it did while I was in country. This bread can also be savory and stuffed. I have a salty tooth so I have not had it with honey since I've returned home. I have spread it with an herb/garlic mixture, a curry, and harissa before frying and finished them with a brush of oil and sea salt. So addicting - so good!

Msemen.jpg

Msemen2.jpg

That looks great, Jo Ann!

Yesterday, I made a "meat and potato" soup. I took a big ham hock and simmered it in water with an onion to make a broth. (I then stripped the meat off of the hock to put back in later). I made a pretty standard potato-leek soup, pureeing the potatoes and leeks once they were softened in the ham broth. I put that back in the pot and added the ham along with some smoked Dakota bratwurst we bought at a sausage place on Saturday. This was served with warm crusty bread and a salad that some friends brought. It came out really well.

Tonight's supper was not quite so great. I made a meat loaf using my regular recipe, but instead of ground chuck, I tried out a house blend of ground beef sold by our corner market. It was a bit drier than the ground chuck and I won't be using it again for this purpose. To go with it, I made risotto with fresh, young porcinis. Although the mushrooms looked great and were fairly fragrant when cooked, they were a bit lacking in flavor. On top of that, I added some sherry to the risotto and put in a bit more than I would have liked. It was ok, but not great.

Third course: "Dinner", crispy duck and brussels sprout spring roll, pork and macadamia nut stuffed broiled shitake mushrooms and crispy deep fried sushi ginger on an .......

OMG. Do you have a recipe for this? All of my favorite things!

[Jenise]

Third course: "Dinner", crispy duck and brussels sprout spring roll, pork and macadamia nut stuffed broiled shitake mushrooms and crispy deep fried sushi ginger on an .......

OMG. Do you have a recipe for this? All of my favorite things!

No, not really, or I'd be happy to share. The spring rolls were just making spring rolls the way Annabelle normally would (meat+celery+carrot+cabbage), using duck for its implied luxury (we braised a whole duck with green onions and ginger) and substituting, at my suggestion, shaved Brussels sprouts for Chinese cabbage to upscale it to something none of our guests had ever had before. Annabelle really wanted to serve something deep-fried to show that aspect of champagne's versatility. The stuffed mushrooms and the Ancho chile sauce were both ideas we got from two unrelated dishes in a book by Philadelphia chinese-fusion chef Susanna Foo; they had simple Chinese seasonings and we added the macadamia nuts as a nod to Annabelle's Hawaiian upbringing. The deep fried sushi ginger was my idea. Pretty much our usual brainstorming collaboration--we have a blast cooking together.

Oh, speaking of disasters, guess what happened? Their oven died mid-meal. It's 30 years old and an absolutely horrible little thing, but at least it was an oven. It started during the soufflé bake, though we didn't realize yet what was going on. They just weren't rising, and of course I was blaming myself and ready to cry. I cooked them an extra eight minutes to get some color and only half the rise I hoped for (though they were perfectly cooked, whew!, in every other sense). We left the oven on during the Lunch course and then switched it over to broil for the mushrooms when we fired the Dinner course. About four minutes in I checked on them and realized they were still cold. No heat on the Bake setting now either so we pan fried the shitakes upside down on the stove top, but thank god we at least got the soufflés out.

I roasted a butternut squash last night to make squash gnocchi. When I make roast butternut squash soup I usually simmer the seeds and scraped out pulp in butter, then use that flavored butter to intensify the squash flavor in the soup. But since I was making gnocchi, I didn't need to do that.

Instead I roasted the seeds and pulp in a dry pan, along with a stick of cinnamon, a few cloves, and some nutmeg, til they bloomed. Then I added it to a couple of cups of milk and simmered it for a while, along with a few strands of saffron, then strained it and used it as the base of a creme anglaise. I then let that chill overnight, and this morning I tossed it in the ice cream maker.

Oh.

My.

God.

That's all I can say. Other than: why hadn't I thought of this before?

Tom, inspired !

Tom, inspired !

Thanks very much

[Jenise]

Tom, inspired !

Thanks very much

Adding to the applause!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adding to the applause!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Jenise!

Wow, Tom
It would never have occurred to me. You rock!

Wow, Tom It would never have occurred to me. You rock!

Thanks so much, Jo Ann. How nice - and astute - of you!

While checking the contents of the freezer this morning for something to make tonight, I found 1 1/2 lbs of cubed sirloin, fat cut off, cut in bite size pieces....great! I thawed it out, dried with paper towels, then coated them with flour, s&p and garlic powder. Browned them in a dutch oven, removed, added onion to sauté, then garlic, then red wine and beef consume. Scrapped up the brown goodness on the bottom. Added mushrooms and put the meat back in to cook. I will finish this off tonight by adding fresh tarragon from the garden. Serving over Penne. Also on the need to eat list is green beans from the Farmer's Market last Saturday. They are blanched, then a quick sauté, with fresh basil, little sugar, garlic salt, butter and cherry tomatoes tossed in at the end.

[Jenise]

Karen, sounds great. I came home from L.A. with a bit of a bug and have not been cooking, beyond the big pot of tomato-beef-noodle soup I whipped up earlier this week.

Today I'm better, and it's a good thing too. I have 38 people coming for Happy Hour. I'm opening a bunch of white wines and will serve some palmiers I just made (ham/sundried tomato/gruyere/oregano and artichoke/green/olive/garlic/parmesan) for snack food. After an hour, everyone will climb aboard the Greyhound bus I've hired to take us into town for an all-Provence wine tasting that I'm staging at a wonderful local deli. A better-than-usual Friday night.

It was supposed to rain today, but the storm went away and we have another sunny day with temps in the high 70's.....crazy weather for this time of year. I planned to make braised lamb shanks (and enjoy a rainy day cooking) today....a recipe I saw in Williams-Sonoma catalog. This is my second time making them...they are amazing. After browning the shanks well, a sauce is made from golden browned onions, garlic, tomato paste, cinnamon, cumin, bay leaves, tomato paste, fresh thyme, allspice, pomegranate juice, (I used pomegranate molasses last time) chicken broth, and merlot. All this is cooked in a slow- cooker, sauce is reduced at the end and a little red wine vinegar is added. Dish is plated and sprinkled with fresh parsley and pomegranate seeds. It is beautiful. Serving with mashed potatoes, of course. Purple carrots are added to the cooker the last hour.
https://www.google.com/search?q=purple+carrots&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Z9SHUu2BLsXqkAep7YDoBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDIQsAQ&biw=786&bih=429#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=OkDxDw0lnNxbtM%3A%3BuMPhr1taJBsnLM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.carrotmuseum.co.uk%252Fphotos%252Fpurple3.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.carrotmuseum.co.uk%252Fmaroon.html%3B250%3B250

For you die hard foodies.....it is best if you don't read this next sentence!

On another site, a question was posted "what is your favorite side dish". A lady in Seattle named Traca, who hangs out with chefs, caterers, foodies of all types and does catering, said her favorite was Pineapple Fluff. It consists of a can of crushed pineapple, evaporated milk whipped with vanilla extract, strawberry jello and cream cheese. She said it is a beautiful pink color, ambrosia like and very delicious. OK, I have not had jello anything in years, and just had to try it out. It sounds like something our grandchildren would love and if it is "that" good, I will have it as an extra side Thanksgiving. I have some wonderful jello salad recipes that our kids grew up with...and I bet they have not had one in years!

Jenise, that sounds like a very fun Friday night indeed! Glad you are feeling better. I'm at the tail end of probably the same bug….

As for our dinner, Len and I were in Costco the other day when he spied the boneless lamb legs. He said he would love it if I'd roast one to about medium and make a gravy from the drippings. This sounded good to me too, so tonight, I'm finally getting around to doing it. He has a hockey game early this evening, so I'm sure he will come home from it very hungry. I'll make smashed red-skinned potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts to go with it. I felt like I scored at Trader Joe's…they had the whole Brussels sprouts stalks for just $2.99.

[Jenise]

Jenise, that sounds like a very fun Friday night indeed! Glad you are feeling better. I'm at the tail end of probably the same bug….

As for our dinner, Len and I were in Costco the other day when he spied the boneless lamb legs. He said he would love it if I'd roast one to about medium and make a gravy from the drippings. This sounded good to me too, so tonight, I'm finally getting around to doing it. He has a hockey game early this evening, so I'm sure he will come home from it very hungry. I'll make smashed red-skinned potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts to go with it. I felt like I scored at Trader Joe's…they had the whole Brussels sprouts stalks for just $2.99.

Lamb, red potatoes, green leafy veggies? Though in slight different form, that's exactly what we had last night:

IMG_0514.JPG

The Margaux was to honor the life of Charlie Trotter.

Lamb, red potatoes, green leafy veggies? Though in slight different form, that's exactly what we had last night:

IMG_0514.JPG

The Margaux was to honor the life of Charlie Trotter.

That kinda looks like a colcannon…? What a nice tribute. He would be proud.

Things are getting a little chilly here, so we had our first braised dish of the fall season. Beef stew (or bourguignonne, or whatever) based loosely on James Peterson's recipe in Glorious French Food. Came out very nicely, but then it's pretty hard to screw up with chuck roast, veggies, a bottle of wine, and time.

Last night's dinner was doro wat.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

That kinda looks like a colcannon…? What a nice tribute. He would be proud.

I see why you say that, but it wasn't. It was blanched swiss chard and boiled red potatoes tossed in a cheesy béchamel, which was the side dish served with the first osso buco I ever ordered in a restaurant. It was also the first time I tasted swiss chard--so, together, a nostalgia combination, though my lamb shanks weren't exactly osso buco. They were a perfected version of the lamb shanks I grew up with, which I realize in retrospect was merely my mother treating them like pot roast. She'd put six or seven salt-and-peppered shanks in her big blue and white speckled turkey roaster, with tons of sliced onions and a bit of dry sherry and roast until the meat fell off the bone, about three hours. I'm sure she would then have removed the meat and added a water/flour slurry to turn the pan juices into a lot of gravy. Mom didn't get 'reduction'. She, like her mother before her, implicitly believed that no meal was complete without lots of gravy.

Not me! I roast the shank (Bob and I will share one) and onions (one large onion per shank) dry and uncovered, until the meat has browned and the onions start to singe. That's the first hour. I then add sherry (a good Lustau Palo Cortado) and chicken broth up to braising level, loosely cover with foil and roast for another two hours, when most of the liquid has cooked down to about two tablespoons and left what's practically an onion jam in the bottom of the baking dish. THAT'S what I want, super intense and focussed--not gravy per se. So that's what's in the picture along with that wonderful side dish that always tastes 'just right' to me with my ersatz osso buco.

Though in slight different form, that's exactly what we had last night:

IMG_0514.JPG

The Margaux was to honor the life of Charlie Trotter.

.

.

.

*thud*

[Jenise]

Though in slight different form, that's exactly what we had last night:

IMG_0514.JPG

The Margaux was to honor the life of Charlie Trotter.

.

.

.

*thud*

If you die, just think what we'll have for you! I'll bet I've got a nice little Chianti around here somewhere.....