What's cooking?

I really need to go shopping. The larder is looking very bare.

Dinner tonight: oven baked chicken breasts, with a little dried tomato and cashew pesto (commercial) crusting the top. Plain couscous. Home made melange of summer vegetables: tomatoes, baby squash, zucchini, cooked up together - from the garden via the freezer. The second half of a bottle of Marlborough sav blanc, opened last night. It's all make-do here today.

Great grub Matilda , with or without an empty larder. The Francophile should count his blessings.

<LATER>

He said it was delicious.

Ground turkey burgers, seasoned with fresh, whole grain bread crumbs, fresh thyme, lemon and lemon zest, then grilled. Burger toppings are, fire roasted chili, grilled red onion slices, butter lettuce and tomato slices. Home made fries on the side, seasoned with coarse salt, freshly gr. pepper, ancho chile powder. Served on square, ciabatta buns, also grilled. I love grill marks on my bread!

[Robin Garr]

I'm using a leftover poached Barr Farm local chicken breast and fresh tarragon from the garden to fashion poulet l'estragon. On the side, rice and the garden's first asparagus harvest of the season. Ahhhh, spring. On the side a simple Loire white, Sauvion 2009 Vouvray.

Last night, we made a mushroom-topped polenta dish from a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe. The polenta used 160 g. of the quick-cooking version with 160 g. of parmigiano and a good amount of butter added in to finish. That was topped with taleggio cheese and put under the broiler to melt and brown. Then a bunch of big mushroom pieces that had been quickly sauteed in oil with tarragon, thyme, garlic, and truffle oil were spread over the top and the whole thing went back under the broiler to warm up. It was beautiful and very indulgent. In fact, it was a little much for me. If I make it again, I'll cut the cheese level way down in the polenta.

[Robin Garr]

It was beautiful and very indulgent.

Sounds great, Mike! One of those vegetarian dishes in which you don't miss the meat one bit.

Beef short ribs rubbed with cumin, salt, pepper,coriander,ancho Chile powder, then browned. They will braise in the oven in a mix of onion, garlic, fire roasted tomatoes, chicken broth, fresh lime, hatch Chiles, and chipotle peppers in adobo. I'm serving over jasmine rice. I've made a mixture of cilantro leaves, jalapeño pepper, red onion,lime juice and olive oil, then pureed in the food processor...this will go into the rice after it is cooked. A sauté of fennel, broccoli and zucchini will round out the meal.

[Robin Garr]

mushroom-topped polenta dish

Okay, I'm making this even as we speak. using Kenny Mattingly's Kentucky Farmstead St. Jerome cheese, a mild washed-rind cow's milk cheese. Got a Kris 2009 Pinot Nero from Pavia lined up to taste with it ...

Last night, we made a mushroom-topped polenta dish from a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe. It was beautiful and very indulgent. In fact, it was a little much for me. If I make it again, I'll cut the cheese level way down in the polenta.

Sounds good but I agree that all the cheese was not necessary. I guess that comes from restaurant cooking where you have to grab people's attention. Ottolenghi's restaurant in London has some very eye and palate-grabbing food. None of the stuff I had was particularly rich but it was all very well salted and the flavors popped out. Fun stuff.

Last night, we made a mushroom-topped polenta dish from a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe. It was beautiful and very indulgent. In fact, it was a little much for me. If I make it again, I'll cut the cheese level way down in the polenta.

Sounds good but I agree that all the cheese was not necessary. I guess that comes from restaurant cooking where you have to grab people's attention. Ottolenghi's restaurant in London has some very eye and palate-grabbing food. None of the stuff I had was particularly rich but it was all very well salted and the flavors popped out. Fun stuff.

Fiddlesticks.

Mike's post puts me in mind of a wonderful plate of polenta that I bought at a street fair in Milan. It was some big autumn event, lots of guys in green hats, tents and tables occupying the streets, and a cauldron of polenta. They heaped it up on a plate and doused it with gorgonzola. I still remember it: steaming hot, gooey, earthy, moldy, briny, firm and substantial. What food!

Fiddlesticks.

Mike's post puts me in mind of a wonderful plate of polenta that I bought at a street fair in Milan. It was some big autumn event, lots of guys in green hats, tents and tables occupying the streets, and a cauldron of polenta. They heaped it up on a plate and doused it with gorgonzola. I still remember it: steaming hot, gooey, earthy, moldy, briny, firm and substantial. What food!

Yes. Now that you mention it, if I'm making a cheesy polenta I actually use more cheese than Mike. (Way more than the dry weight of the corn meal).

Chinese red-cooked chicken. I added a piece of star anise (a whole 8-pointed star); not part of Virginia Lee's original recipe, but I like the flavor and aroma it contributes.

-Paul W.

Penne with smoked salmon, shallots,fresh lemon juice and zest, white wine, garlic, cream, and dill. Some beautiful deep burgundy lettuce, tossed with parsley from the garden, yellow tomatoes, avocado and a vinaigrette.

Rogan Josh, just like Penzey's says to.

For the sake of my Yankee partner, I use additional cardamom but no more cayenne. (Yes, and I swap the onion for fennel and throw in some extra fennel seed.)

Sheesh. Even with a prepared spice mix, Indian cooking comes down to a lot of fiddling around with spices.

And very saffron rice. Short grain on the rice, long on the saffron, heh.

[Jenise]

Tonight, honey roasted duck breast slices on saffron almond rice, a Marcus Samuelsson recipe.

Inspired by a recent Portuguese meal in Amsterdam, experimented with a variant on a sausage casserole (pork in it's unprocessed form appears a more normal element than the sausage).

No recipe (I'm a maverick amateur in the kitchen ), but the following went into the stovetop pot initially to brown/cook:
3 pork sausages (rustically cut into 4-5 chunks each)
1 chorizo, more finely sliced
1 rustically sliced onion
two small bulbs of fresh elephant garlic (quite mild)

followed by some tinned chpped tomatoes and a mix of herbs from the garden (sage, fennel and oregano but only in 'accent' size measure).

To finish (last 5-10 mins), about 20 clams and (because they either went in or got thrown) some slightly tired asparagus and a wee dash of white wine (2005 Te Mata Elston - hence just the dash).

A very basic dish, but I'm warming to the idea of meat and seafood together. Served up with rice and some wilted spinach.

Last night, I needed something quick that used mostly pantry staples. I happened upon a recipe for shrimp fra diavolo in The Sicilian Gentleman's Cookbook. It involved putting together a quick tomato-onion-garlic sauce, letting that simmer a bit, and then throwing in the shrimp until just cooked. A bunch of parmigiano and crushed red pepper followed that and it went over fettucine. Delicious, satisfying, and quick.

Tonight, I had the leftovers.

[Jenise]

A very basic dish, but I'm warming to the idea of meat and seafood together. Served up with rice and some wilted spinach.

Ah, Portugese Pork and Clams. Like you, I long ago thought What the Heck? when reading about it, but have come to the conclusion after several run-ins with it that I like it, though I think the pork does more for the clams than the clams do anything for the pork. A Chinese-American chef I quite admire, Ming Tsai, does an especially good Asian take on the classic adding, IIRC, an Asian chile-garlic sauce and star anise. I'm also reminded of perhaps the best dish of steamed mussels I've ever had, where slivers of cured Chinese sausage were added to a brew also involving Spanish paprika and chipotle chiles. NICE.

Ah, Portugese Pork and Clams. Like you, I long ago thought What the Heck? when reading about it, but have come to the conclusion after several run-ins with it that I like it, though I think the pork does more for the clams than the clams do anything for the pork. A Chinese-American chef I quite admire, Ming Tsai, does an especially good Asian take on the classic adding, IIRC, an Asian chile-garlic sauce and star anise. I'm also reminded of perhaps the best dish of steamed mussels I've ever had, where slivers of cured Chinese sausage were added to a brew also involving Spanish paprika and chipotle chiles. NICE.

I've done mussels with Spanish chorizo and smoked piementon...with a bit of fire roasted tomato or in bianco with garlic and a good Spanish white wine......TERRIFIC. Although I never tire of mussels, no matter how they are done.

Jenise, can you post something more about the saffron almond rice?

A Veggie (artichokes, marinara, ricotta, home grown spinach, red peppers, yadda) Lasagna, made with homemade pasta, and some artisan crusty rolls direct from NJ's kitchen.

Medium hot southern sausage steamed and sauteed rolled in white bread; and Mexicale beans. And a banana for dessert.

Bacon and green pea risotto finished with white truffle butter last night.