Burdock, peeled and sliced, cooked in water, soy sauce, and rice vinegar until the liquid cooked off and it was tender. (It actually came within seconds of burning, but I saved it with a splash more water.) The almost-burned caramelization gave the dish a fabulous richness, where the earthiness of the root and soy turned almost to an aged cheese flavor. Also cubed tofu cooked in some of the lamb-chicken broth with peas and carrots,…
Month: October 2006
Chris, Sirkka, and Nissa came over again; what you see here is steak, kabocha squash, and radicchio salad from their garden. For the first course we had a pizza with kale pesto and shiitakes sautéed with a bit of bacon. The steak was marinated in wine, broth, soy sauce, and vinegar, and then the marinade reduced for a sauce. We alternated between a 2002 Sirius and a 2001 Carver Sutro petite sirah; as always the…
I have been craving this for a while, and an order from the local Chinese place was not at all satisfying, so I got to work. I made it mild, so Milo could eat it too, and it was well received. Pork from fleisher’s, good tofu, and a sauce from the chicken/lamb broth thickened with flour since we have no corn starch. A bit of soy, some vinegar, and peas. Then a pile of spinach…
A pound of ground turkey, kidney beans, canned tomatoes and paste, and a panoply of herbs and spices simmered long and low to become a welcome treat after a busy day. A bit of smoked duck fat helped give it depth, and extra garlic made up for the lack of onion. I also splashed a little cider vinegar in to balance the acidity. There was a glass of the Orion left, now five days open,…
Everyone is a bit under the weather, so I took the bones from both the lamb chops and the smoked chicken and made a broth with leeks and carrots. After a couple of hours, strained, and with the addition of the trimmings from the ravioli, plus a few ravioli, as well as kidney beans, carrots, half a can of tomatoes, and the rest of the puréed vegetable soup, it became a perfect meal for tired,…
After smoking the trout on Sunday, the fire still had plenty of life left in it, so I threw on some chicken legs for the next day. We had them for lunch, chopped and tossed with homemade mayonnaise, onion, capers, and parsley to make a salad. The leftover risotto became little fried cakes, and we put the chicken salad on the last of the radicchio leaves. Dinner was simpler than the night before, but still…
Rick and Julie (and little Holden) are staying for a couple of nights, so we celebrated in fine style. First, more soup, from more or less the same mixture of vegetables as before. We opened a 1998 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne to go with this, and with the next course, little flans of smoked trout. They were actually halfway between flans and souflées, since they puffed up a fair amount. With these went a marinated…
Sometimes you just need to go back to the archetypes of comfort food- the touchstones of taste- because you’re tired and the seasons are changing, and darn it, there’s a pound of bork (beef and pork) from Fleisher’s in the fridge. Thus did the following become dinner: spaghetti with a slow-cooked meat sauce involving tomato paste, onion, herbs, garlic, wine and several hours. On the side, fresh arugula tossed with the leftover chard and radicchio…
Chris and Sirkka came over with an amazing basket of treats from their garden: and we made them into a great dinner. Micro was also in town, luckily, and it was a perfect evening. First, the rest of the puréed soup from before, enhanced with a bit of truffle oil and wild mint from the meadow. Next, seared sashimi of marlin, marinated with umeboshi paste, miso, and honey, which I threw in the pan after…
Kale pesto has become the go-to way for getting copious greens into Milo; he loves it on pasta (and cauliflower,) and he also loved the two ways we had it: on pizza with goat cheese and in a puréed soup that included more cauliflower, carrot, celery root, onion, and parsley. We had all this green goodness with a 2003 d’Arenberg “Laughing Magpie” shiraz/viognier which, though not as friendly as the 2002, is a mighty wine…