Month: March 2007

March 19, 2007

I finally made it over to Kris and Ken’s place for dinner, and it was great. Sujit and James joined us, but alas Mary and David did not since his flight from Paris was so late due to bad weather. In order, the courses that Kris prepared were as follows: first, sea bream with celery root purée and caramelized garlic, enjoyed with a 1986(!) Pouilly-Fuissé “Les Reiss” from Ferret which was fascinating, and then a…

March 16, 2007

Danny got hold of a 1978 Mouton Rothschild, and thus a dinner was called for. John and Debi came too, and brought a 1979 Pichon-Lalande. I made more of the cannelini-artichoke mixture, and spread it on the toasted homemade bread, then topped each one with a quarter of an artichoke (alla Romana, of course) and a drizzle of truffle oil. These were insanely hearty and great with the 2004 Quintarelli “bianco secco” that John brought…

March 15, 2007

I went to Fleisher’s to replenish the freezer, and get a lamb shoulder for tonight, and I also got some of their pastrami, which is insanely good- really salty and peppery and smoky- and used some of it in place of pancetta in the soffrito for cannelini (made from dried, of course) along with onion, carrot, and herbs. I sautéed a head of escarole with lemon, oil, and garlic, just like they do at Pepe…

March 15, 2007

I got this recipe from Andrew’s blog, where he has a link to a no-knead bread recipe from Jim Lahey of Sullivan St. Bakery. I used half whole wheat and half white flour, but otherwise followed it exactly. The point is to make a wet dough and let it rise and ferment for 18 hours, so time does your work for you, then bake it inside a preheated Dutch oven in your oven so that…

March 13, 2007

I had been thinking about this for a few days; it always works out best when I cook what I really want to cook and tonight was no exception. Trout “en papillote” stuffed with garlic and herbs went in the oven along with twice-baked potatoes (for their second time) after baking and getting mashed up with garlic chives, (newly visible now the snow is melting) truffle oil, thyme, salt, pink pepper, and olive oil and…

March 12, 2007

Christine went to the city, so Milo and I were alone this weekend. Yesterday, we made chicken stew with shiitakes, carrots, parsnip, celery root, moroccan lemon, and white wine, and today for lunch I added Lebanese couscous, the kabocha purée from salmon night, some red cabbage, and more roots, letting it simmer until all was soft. We’ll have the rest for lunch tomorrow. For her return, I defrosted 2 duck breasts, steamed a mixture of…

March 10, 2007

I almost made the wasabi pea crust again for this salmon, but opted instead for cornmeal and spices (paprika, pink pepper, herbes de Provence, cinnamon.) Steamed kabocha squash made a super-creamy mash, and needed nothing but a little oil and salt, and then, still in the same pan, I browned shiitakes, then wilted spinach, each time with their own fresh smashed garlic clove. Last, another orange-based sauce: OJ, wine, tamari, agave syrup, pink pepper that…

March 9, 2007

Finally available up here; I’ve been craving them since it’s that time of year and the white beans we’ve been eating call out for them. So I bought four, and one got chopped up and added to the soaked beans along with onion, garlic, a bit of turkey bacon, herbs, and white wine, and simmered for two hours until the aromatics had disintegrated and the beans were tender. Meanwhile the other three artichokes got the…

March 8, 2007

Turkey meatballs, with minced turkey bacon, onion, garlic, herbes de provence, and a pinch of flour, in a tomato sauce with chiffonaded kale, piquin peppers, more garlic and onion, oregano, and a splash of wine. The spaghetti in question was organic whole wheat pasta, and the wine a 2003 Raymond Usseglio Châteauneuf, which was just right, since its relative lightness kept its youth from interfering with the expression of all the nice fruit, herbs, and…

March 4, 2007

Our neighbor, Kenny, is a bow hunter, and gave us some meat from an animal he killed a while back. So the stew meat from him, browned, became the base for another fridge-clearing stew. Carrot, parsnip, onion, and celery root went in, plus some tomato sauce from Friday, plus the rest of the sweet potato cakes and green curry sauce from the scallops, plus the last of the quinoa and some leftover pinto beans. It…