Writing from Home

This Week in the Kitchen, May 5, 2012 Edition

The festive board

This has been the week of dining with friends!

TL:DR? Skip to Saturday for the best part! That's the reason for all the pictures with this post.

Sunday Dining Out with Friends

Tonight we were Dick and Gerry’s guests at Mon Reve. The food is good, although heavy on the butter and cream. I had a delicious beef stroganoff – and no, there was no paprika in it.

Monday Dinner with Friends – at their house

We’ve been invited to Tom and Dianne’s for flank steak. We’re bringing beets – oven roasted, cut into wedges, and finished with butter, salt and pepper.

Tuesday

Cheese tortellini (Buittoni – I had a coupon) with Umami pasta sauce with lots of shiitakes and some dried wild mushrooms as well.

Wednesday Dinner with Friends – at our house

Last week our young friend brought us a humongous head of cabbage from the San Luis Obispo farmer’s market. As promised, I made Pork-Stuffed Cabbage Rolls from the Simply Recipes site. For dessert we had buttermilk lemon cake (a mix from King Arthur) with lovely blood orange and lemon fruit syrups from Round Pond along with sliced strawberries.

Michael pours Champagne for our gourmet group

The cabbage roll recipe is generous – with a bit over a pound of pork, six of us ate hearty and there were four lunch portions left over. They are delicious – pork, cabbage, sauerkraut, sour cream, paprika … There may be a better cabbage roll recipe out there somewhere, but I don’t think I’ll ever get beyond this one.

Thursday Dinner with Friends

Tonight we’re fixing Steve Raichlen’s Peking Duck, complete with scallion crepes and the delicious hoisin-soy sauce, not to mention scallion brushes to spread the sauce. Tom and Dianne are coming for dinner – we owe them several dinners, and we have to grab them while they’re in town!

Hubby grills the duck beer-can style – works a treat except … It’s really windy, gusty wind from the southwest, and it keeps blowing out the grill burners. Eventually he moved the grill to change the angle, and in the end he just left some burners on high (they don’t blow out on high). The duck turned out fine, and due to the higher temperature he didn’t have to use the infrared burner to crisp the skin. While the duck rested, Hubby grilled some summer squash slices for veg. I handled the sticky rice, the sauce, and the crepes. Adam made banana smoothies for dessert in his Ninja blender – really good.

Chickpea Patties - Openers

Friday

Tonight a new recipe for Baked Wrapped Tilapia, the fish fillets wrapped in parchment with a sauce with lots of Asian flavors. We made this with rock cod rather than tilapia. Even though the rock cod filets were thicker than the typical tilapia, the fish came out just a little overcooked. 20 minutes is too long – or maybe it’s my infamously unstable oven. We finished off the summer squash for our vegetable.

I think next time we’ll poach the fish instead of baking.

Cucumber, Tomato and Radish salad - Betweens

Saturday Gourmet Dinner

Tonight our gourmet group meets for dinner. As usual, each of the four couples has a choice. We are the hosts tonight, and we have chosen recipes from Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij, a beautiful Persian cookbook that my friend Janice gave me for Christmas. It is not only beautiful – the recipes have great tastes! The proportions are a bit whacked (4 cups of rice makes six servings?) and the cooking times are sometimes too short or too long, but the flavors are tremendous.

Our first course is ground lamb and chickpea patties with sweet and sour sauce, served wrapped in lettuce leaves and accompanied by a magnum of fine rosé bubbly from Alsace.

Our second course is a lovely cucumber, tomato, radish and mint salad. Along with this we drink a fine Grigich Hills Chardonnay and a flowery Argentine Torrontes.

Quail Kebab and Jeweled Rice - Mains

 

The main course is quail marinated in a concoction that includes verjuice, grape molasses, ginger, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, lime juice and other ingredients. The effect is a fine sweet-sour taste. We grilled them direct and didn’t bother skewering. We served an old Swann pinot (1987 Sonoma Coast) and a Sainte Croix Syrah-Merlot with this dish.

Accompanying the quail is a dish called Jeweled Rice. This is a saffron rice (saffron and orange blossom water) and is layered with caramelized orange rind and carrot strips as well as sautéed cranberries, golden raisins, sliced almonds, and pistachio. Of course everything is liberally slathered with ghee. I didn’t get a good crust – have to work on that – but the rice was delectable anyway.

Date Pie

Dessert is a date and pecan pie, with a Rotta Black Monukka dessert wine.

The best fun of the whole prep (I worked on the mains for two days) was making the ghee. I am no longer afraid of frying butter! And the house smelled delicious. Other adventures during the prep included making a substitute for orange blossom water and making grape molasses.

I'm looking forward to making lots more dishes from Food of Life -- pomegranate, pistachio, lamb, eggplant -- what's not to like?

April in the Kitchen

Things have been rather strange the last few weeks, so I haven’t posted weekly updates. Instead, here’s a roundup of April and some links to new recipes we’ve tried.

April, 2012	# of meals
Total dinners cooked	23
Dessert served	5
Grill Used	11 meals, 15 dishes
Ate out	2 restaurants and 3 dinners with friends
Have no idea what we ate!
New recipes	4
Meat Breakdown (exclusive of eating out)
Beef	10
Fowl	5
Lamb	1
Pork	8
Fish	4
No meat	3

 

Split Pea Soup from epicurious.com – the trick is to use half as much marjoram, a Turkish bay leaf, a chunk of good smoked ham, home-made stock for half the water, and 2-3 cloves of garlic. Savory and comforting.

Colcannon made with kale – be sure to cook the kale until tender before adding it to the mash.

The surprise of the month was the arrival of a young friend at my door with a giant cabbage from  the San Luis Obispo market – it was HUGE. This inspired pork-stuffed cabbage rolls, a great recipe from Simply Recipes. The cabbage rolls, tasty with paprika, are cooked on a bed of sauerkraut. We have great kraut from Moessner Farms! And the finishing touch is sour cream stirred into the cooked kraut. Delicious.

How big was the cabbage? Each leaf made 2 cabbage rolls!

The downer of the month – last Friday we arrived at the local farmer’s market to find that, alas, it will be no more. The reasons cited are paperwork, cost, and declining revenue. This is the last straw. I’m done with Ridgecrest, done.

This Week in the Kitchen, April 14, 2012 Edition

Finally just about over this flu.

Sunday Dinner with Friends

We invite some friends to share Easter dinner with us.  Hubby grills a leg of lamb rubbed with Herbes de Provence. I roast quartered small red potatoes with onions and carrot chunks. While the lamb rests, hubby grills slices of zucchini. I have made Janice’s tomato chutney. For dessert we have homemade strawberry ice cream, our second batch of the year, atop some sliced berries. It is yummy.

Monday

Last week at Trader Joe’s we explored some of the frozen foods, actually looking for soup ingredients for some friends. I decided to try the veggie burgers. Tonight we’re having the Vegetable Masala burgers, along with more traditional beef burgers. Hubby grills some asparagus, and I throw together a salad. The veggie burgers we serve with Mrs. Ball’s Mango Chutney and crispy romaine lettuce. Altogether creditable.

Tuesday            

Tonight we have some arugula and ricotta ravioli from Trader Joe’s with some of our Umami pasta sauce. The arugula is a nice change-up – a hint of bitter greens adds zing. On the side we have a salad – we’re trying to get back into the salad habit.

Wednesday Dinner with Friends

Tonight I’m making carbonnade again, this time with proper Chimay Belgian beer. We serve it on papardelle, accompanied by green beans with pine nuts. It is delicious. Thank you Daniel Boulud. Linda brings poppy seed cake for dessert. We agree to sign affidavits if necessary that our guests were fed poppy seeds.

Thursday

Tonight hubby makes crab cakes using a new recipe from cook’s Illustrated. The trick to the crunchy finish is ground-up panko used as a crust. This is a keeper recipe.

Friday

Tonight we have matzo ball soup using Ben’s recipe, which I repeat here for your edification. The real taste secrets? Duck fat in the matzo and duck broth for the soup. Comfort food.

Ben Nissan’s Matzoh Ball Recipe

1 cup Matzo Meal

4 large eggs

1/4 cup chicken fat, oil, or melted margarine

1/4 cup water or seltzer (I always use seltzer)

 1 teaspoon salt or to taste (I usually use more-especially if not using chicken fat)

pinch of ground pepper (I use more)

 

Beat eggs. Add water, oil, salt, pepper and mix well.

Add Matzo meal and stir thoroughly to combine.

Refrigerate for 1/2 to one hour.  NOTE: This is important! Otherwise you won't be able to form the matzo balls.

Partially fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil.

Wet your hands with cold water.

Form mixture into ball about 1" in diameter.  Don't worry, they're going to expand.

Drop matzo balls into  boiling water. 

When all the matzo balls are in the pot, reduce heat to low.

Simmer covered for about 30 minutes or until done. I read somewhere that the longer you cook them the lighter they become. 

     Seems counterintuitive to me but what do I know. Anyway, I usually cook for 30 or 40 minutes and then taste one...cook's treat!

Remove from the water with a slotted spoon. They can either go directly into the soup or sit in a large bowl. Just remember to put them into the soup to reheat 15 to 30 minutes before you're ready to eat them.

This makes about 10  1.5"' matzo balls

Saturday

Party tomorrow, so burgers tonight. For hubby and me, we have Trader Joe’s regular veggie burgers. For Adam we make beef burgers. Tomorrow is our annual birthday party, particularly celebrating Dick Wisdom’s 85^th birthday. The menu includes buffalo tri tip, slaw, Thai Kitchen rice (the Spicy Thai Chili flavor), and birthday cake. We will conclude the party with the ritual shooting of the balloons – with BB guns.

This Week in the Kitchen, April 7, 2012 Editioni

We are all improving, but there’s still a whole lot of coughing going on! I have no food pictures this week, so instead I offer you a cat ball picture.

Sunday

Hubby makes an eggplant gratin for lunch. I cook up a big pot of Umami pasta sauce from The Fifth Taste. We have whole wheat fusilli with some of the sauce for our dinner – and there are three portions left for future use! Yay.

Monday

Buffalo tri-tip, baked potato, grilled asparagus, sliced cucumbers, the first radishes of spring, and a salad. Uninspired but tasty, tasty and comforting.

Tuesday

Cranberry beans cooked with half a smoked ham hock, a salad of mixed greens with dried cranberries and walnuts (our standard salad), and bread – a down home dinner.

Wednesday Dinner with Friends

I’m still struggling, but am well enough to entertain. I’m trying to get in all the cool-weather recipes I can before summer arrives, so tonight we have Pork and PoblanoTamale Pie, steamed broccoli, a baked sweet potato, mixed green salad, and lemon bars. The lemon bars are made from a King Arthur mix – I’m not much of a baker.

The pork tamale pie is a favorite.  It comes from the April, 2010, Bon Appetit. I simplify a bit by using ground pork, up the oregano a bit (using Mexican oregano toasted and ground), and make a little extra cornbread. I confess that I even bought a Mario Batali iron skillet just for this recipe – not that it doesn’t come in handy for others, too.

Thursday

Today is cleaning lady day. We flee to Lancaster to shop. For dinner – we have lots of leftovers.

Friday

Salmon, actually sockeye, but tasty, glazed with equal parts of soy sauce and maple syrup, is our main course tonight. Of course today was Farmer’s Market day, so we have a choice of veggies. We continue our spring eating habits with grilled asparagus. And we have bread -- the marvelous half-boule of rustic whole grain bread that Trader Joe's carries.

Saturday

Tonight we have been invited to share in a seder. We enjoy ourselves immensely – after all, when you have to drink four glasses of wine! The matzoh balls are delicious, made with duck fat and floated in tasty chicken broth. We didn’t do any of the cooking, but were able to supply the duck fat and the homemade stock. I’ve asked for Ben’s recipe – definitely making matzoh ball soup soon.

This Week in the Kitchen, March 31, 2012 Edition and March Roundup

Arugula, Radicchio, and Endive Salad

 

The virus rages. But one must eat, eh?

Sunday

I venture out to the grocery for a few items, a mistake. Sneezing and coughing fits ensue. Comfort food is in order – burgers, grilled zucchini, roasted beets.

Monday

Hubby sees that I am struggling, so offers to make the chicken pot pie. I hand him my recipe. Perhaps the fever has robbed my taste buds of function, but the result is exceeding bland. Or maybe it is that the wild mushrooms we used just didn’t have much taste? Hubby complains that the recipe is hard – step after step after step. It took him longer than he thought it ought to. Perhaps whomever wrote the recipe should simplify it. Whose recipe is it? “Mine,” I reply.

Tuesday

Maple/Soy marinated coho salmon, grilled baby bok choy, brown basmati rice, and some sliced Persian cucumbers on the side. If you haven’t grilled baby bok choy, you may want to try. It’s really good.

Remove any damaged outside leaves and trim excess root. Slice the green tops thinly and set aside. Halve the bok choy vertically, spray with olive oil, add salt and pepper. Grill the bok choy in a vegetable basket until tender. Meanwhile, sautee the green tops in a bit of butter or oil, and serve these atop the grilled stalks.

We have a running debate in our house about “tender” grilled vegetables. Hubby likes his with a bit of crunch, and I like mine limp and sweet. He’s pretty good about doing some of each.

Pork Loin with Salsa Verde, Tomato-Potato Gratin

Wednesday

No dinner with friends this week. I am really down with this virus, and now Hubby is coughing as well. I throw a corned beef brisket in the crock pot and it cooks all day. We strain the broth, and cook cabbage and carrots to go along with the meat and a loaf of homemade soda bread, made from the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Illustrated. Of course I discover that I have no cream of tartar in the cupboard, so substitutions must be made. Flurry ensues.

Thursday

I must be getting better – time for a new recipe. Martha Rose Shulman, who writes for the New York Times Health Section, has a feature on vegetarian burgers. Tonight I’m trying the quinoa and greens one. I happen to have some lovely beet greens, a box of red quinoa, and a can of garbanzos, so I’m set to go.

I don’t have much luck getting the burgers to stick together, but the fragmented results do make a tasty sandwich, with a little mayo and a tomato slice. To go along with our “burgers”, we have baby spinach sautéed with shallots.

I’m pondering whether adding some Greek yogurt to the mix might help bind it. The egg I used just wasn’t enough. I’m going to try the burger with Asian flavors next.

Friday

In search of better sausage, I have bought some Johnsonville mild Italian sausages. Hubby will grill these along with some asparagus from today’s Farmer’s Market, and I’m making Fettuccine Alfredo as a side dish. Oh, joyous – cream and parmesan.

The sausage is ... meh.

Saturday

Tonight is a gourmet dinner. While I’m still coughing occasionally, the fever is gone and I’m not contagious. Hubby thinks he’s feeling better as well. But this morning, I hear Adam coughing. I offer him tissues, an antihistamine, and condolences.

Our course tonight is the salad course – arugula, radicchio, and endive with white wine vinaigrette.

Lattice-Topped Apricot Crostata

The dinner is delicious as usual. I've sprinkled images throughout this post. Of the first course, a delicious Broccoli Rabe, Black Olive and Smoked Mozzarella Pizza, I have no pictures -- too busy eating and swilling champagne!

 

 

 

 

March Roundup

March, 2012	# of meals
Total dinners cooked	28
Dessert served	5
Grill Used	13 dinners, 27 dishes
Ate out	3
Have no idea what we ate!	0
New recipes	15
Meat Breakdown (exclusive of eating out)
Red Meat	7
Fowl	5
Lamb	2
Pork	6
Fish	4
No meat	4