Our friends Patrick and Kathleen threw an Easter brunch with tons of food and good people. The weather was perfect, so we spent most of the time on the deck and ate ourselves silly. Kathleen made incredible bread pudding, and lots of other good food, and I brought a braised lamb shoulder with pesto.
Month: April 2006
Normally I think venison is better marinated, since it has so little fat and can dry out. But I didn’t get to it, so I did a rub of salt, pepper, oregano and garlic on a venison tenderloin and seared it up in a super-hot cast iron pan. Once it was seared on all sides, I covered it and lowered the heat. Meanwhile, I lightly steamed some asparagus and made some crispy croquettes out of…
I took the trimmings (skin, bones. etc.) from yeterday’s sashimi and threw them in the rice cooker with brown rice and soaked adzuki beans plus ginger, garlic, shredded kale, and some salt and pepper. The remaining good pieces of fish went in the pan with shallot, lima beans, carrot, coconut milk, curry powder and paste, a little water and the Balinese salt. Served over the rice mixture, and garnished with gomasio, scallion, and cilantro:
This certainly would have been nicer in a Bento Box, but lacking same I went with a plate. Simple sashimi of yellowfin tuna and beautiful kampachi plus a jicama and daikon salad with scallion and cilantro tossed with sesame/olive oil and ume/rice vinegars. I steamed sliced sweet potato and then, briefly, kale in the same pot and dressed them with a tahini/miso/lemon sauce. Drizzled a ponzu-sesame oil mix on the sashimi, shook some gomasio on…
It’s amazing how deep a simple broth of kombu, dashi, and miso can be. With some tofu cubes, and over soba, with seaweed gomasio and a pinch of the Balinese salt on top (I undersalt my broth so I can finish with such things) it hit the spot on a clammy spring evening. The remaining paella rice was my dinner the following night; Christine went out so I made paella avocado maki with a shoyu/miso/hot…
Sadly, we don’t have my Mom’s big paella pan any more, but this evening, after a much needed trip to the Coop and nearby fish market I shelled some nice big shrimp and cooked their shells and some shallots in oil until the shells were pink. Then white wine, carrot, parsley, and broccoli stalk simmered to make a broth. More shallot and some andouille browned in a big sautée pan, then more wine, shrimp, diced…
Last Friday I went to a BYOB dinner thrown by Executive Wine Seminars at Tribeca Grill. The food was a buffet of duck, steak, salmon, and a whole roast pig. There was a mountain of cheese, and a bit of pasta and salad seemingly as an afterthought. The wine was the attraction; the list that follows is far from complete (and not in order) but represents some of what I was able to get a…
Another leftover festival tonight, into which went: -The chickpeas and kale from last night-The last of the lima beans, fennel and sunchokes from a while back-The half can of tomatoes from pasta night -A half block of tofu left over from Milo’s lunch, cubed-A small can of coconut milk-The remaining cooked lasagna noodles, cut into fettucine maltagliate Plus some vindaloo paste, pepper, and finished on the plate with chopped scallion and the kaffir lime/coconut smoked…
So last night half the liquid from the ribs went into a pasta sauce with tomatoes and a little milk plus tons of garlic and herbs. Simple, but pretty fantastic penne, especially with A Sine Qua Non Albino which started out great and was downright operatic by the end. A white wine well worth decanting. The other half of said yummy pork sauce went into a pot with mirepoix and soaked chick peas plus some…