Month: February 2007

February 28, 2007

Big, beautiful scallops were the only new ingredient in this one; the sauce was leftover collards, steamed kale, a bit of spinach, a few canned tomatoes, and the last of some coconut milk. The little cakes were red quinoa and steamed sweet potatoes mashed together. I also made a pan sauce once the scallops came out with a splash of wine and dribbled it over all once plated. We opened a 2001 Volnay “Carelles” by…

February 28, 2007

Back from the city, where we did some good eating (I’ll try to get to it in a future post,) and pretty tired, easy won out. Nice big burgers with shiitakes caramelized in smoked fat and spinach wilted with garlic on top, as well as just a bit of ketchup and mustard since I was too lazy to caramelize onions or make mayo. We finished the Pleiades that Christine opened while I was gone, and…

February 21, 2007

Today I happily bought some monkfish, which we haven’t seen in a while, and wrapped it in blanched collards, then put it in the iron pan with a bit of duck fat and olive oil. While it was cooking, I peeled, cubed and steamed an acorn squash. Once cooked through, the rolls came out and a pan sauce ensued: some of the carrot/burdock purée from yesterday, juice of half a grapefruit, a pat of butter,…

February 20, 2007

Purée #1: kidney beans, canned tomatoes, kale pesto, collards from a few nights back, coconut milk, and some extra spices to round it out. Purée #2: burdock, carrots, and ginger cooked until soft in a bit of water with ume vinegar and two dried mushrooms. Last, basil tofu with a thick nam pla/rice vinegar/ponzu sauce and lots of basil and scallions. All of this went on my patented fake enjera, made this time with whole…

February 17, 2007

Chris is briefly back from tour, so they all came over for a hearty winter dinner. I put a wild boar roast in the oven at 9 AM and by 6 PM it was a divine pasta sauce. Since I had a full day in the studio, I finely minced the aromatics that went into the boar- carrot, onion, garlic, dried porcini- so they would disappear in the final sauce. Once the boar roast had…

February 14, 2007

This has been a week of many soups; we all had the flu and tonight we sent the last sniffles packing with a nice finale. Previously, I had made minestrone from the fried lamb chop bones, then a chicken broth that began as something similar to tonight, but larded with copious hot sauce, ginger, and garlic to napalm the wretched microbes, then ended up as fridge soup a couple of days later with pasta, beans,…

February 7, 2007

This is why we moved up here; what began as a casual plan to get together expanded into dinner for 6, plus two kids. Chris & Sirkka brought some lamb chops, and I coated them in egg and soba then deep fried them (it would have worked better with rib chops, but oh well) and served them with tapenade that included half of a preserved lemon. John brought some brown rice and aduki beans, and…

February 7, 2007

A broth of shrimp shells, dried shrimp, dashi, garlic, and ginger was the base for this meal, since Christine had bought shrimp and tilapia and the harsh cold demanded something tropical. I puréed half the tilapia with ginger, sesame oil, coriander seeds, garlic, lemon juice, and pepper, then formed it into little balls. The rest of the fish got dusted with curry powder and crisped up in a pan while the balls and shrimp bodies…

February 5, 2007

This one didn’t even get a garnish, but time was of the essence and the sauce made up for the lack of elegance. Good wild salmon, with a celtic salt/pepper/cinnamon/sesame mix, seared up nicely while a halved kabocha got nice and soft and caramelized in the oven and a pot of brown rice bubbled away. I added only oil, lemon, and salt to the squash purée, since it was so sweet already, and made a…

February 5, 2007

Pretty straightforward, but with a couple elements that I think made it more interesting: first, using dried kidney beans which required cooking it for 3 hours, and second, a good dollop of smoked duck fat at the beginning to get the aromatics going that worked as an excellent substitute for smoking the meat. A bit of goat cheddar, scallion, and lime juice on top, and a 2003 Faugères by H&B (since I didn’t make it…