Oxtail stew. At Chris & Sirkka’s house, with such a rich variety of roots and leaves from their garden that I won’t bother to list it, all pressure cooked with wine for 45 minutes and served over polenta with fresh raw milk stirred in at the end (yes, from the same cow we get ours from.) We drank a 2003 Jaboulet Vaqueyras and a 2005 Langhe Nebbiolo by La Spinetta. Life is good, even in…
Month: November 2007
A trip to the market for Thanksgiving-related items led to scallops, and a cauliflower, which is one of the first vegetables I’ve bought since May. The rainy day just seemed to want roasted cauliflower, and there’s something about the sweetness of scallops that seemed like a good fit. So I marinated the scallops in kimchi juice to make a sort of ceviche, but not really long enough to “cook” them (though I did try one,…
This was originally going to be my birthday dinner, but I postponed it until Christine was back: a hanger steak (NOT a hangar steak, unless you cook airline food) cooked sous-vide at 135˚ for 75 minutes and got a quick sear in the iron pan to brown the outside. Polenta, endive-umeboshi mash, and a reduction sauce of fresh raw cream from Pepper (pop locavore quiz: do you know the name of the cow(s) you get…
But not what you’re thinking; Christine got back yesterday with birthday presents, (among which, some beautiful plates) Turkish delight with pistachios, and a camera stuffed full of pictures of boring things like Hagia Sophia and all the Greek ruins along the Aegean coast- which I already visited and dutifully drew like 16 years ago. But I did find one pertinent picture. Turkish food, like Greek (but don’t let either hear you say it) is very…
Again seeking efficiency, and short on time for dinner, I repurposed the chicken and soup from last night into a nice curry. Japanese yam and zucchini simmered in coconut milk, the soup, the pesto gravy, vindaloo paste, spices, and lemon juice. I added the chicken at the end to warm it through. We had pappadums and mango chutney for an appetizer since Milo was “very very hungry.” I had a 2006 Sancerre by Franck Millet…
Christine gets back on Tuesday, so Milo and I had a pretty mellow birthday; Wednesday night I’m going to cook a hanger steak sous vide and make some decadent accompaniments, but for tonight a puréed soup of leek and celery root (with the very last of the vegetable shepherd’s pie thrown in for depth and efficiency) and then pan-roasted chicken seasoned with ras-el-hanout, sudachi powder, salt & pepper, and garlic with a kale pesto gravy…
In the mood to play more with my new toy, I vacuum sealed some wild salmon with ginger, garlic, lemon thyme, 5 spice, and sudachi powder. Cooked for half an hour at 47˚C and served on brown rice with a kale-endive pesto, kimchi, and a tomato-blood orange sauce. The beauty of salmon like this is that it looks raw, yet pulls apart like cooked, and the vacuum really helps the flavors get into the fish.…
We had a few friends over, with a total of 5 more kids, because Milo wanted to have a pizza party. I made four: potato, (our almost very last) kale pesto & dried tomato (mixed with a bit of basil pesto and the endive-umeboshi mash) zucchini (our very last) and shiitake-guanciale (sautéed in a pan with garlic and parsely until nice and caramelized.) The last two were with homemade tomato sauce and local mozzarella. I’ve…
If Christine were here, I would have made this into sushi, but containing hurricane Milo while preparing dinner requires some compromise. I did get a chance to play with my new (used) water bath, which is all that matters. Trimmed grass-fed organic ribeye cooked sous-vide at 130˚ for a bit over an hour, then seared in a skillet to get a nice brown on the top and bottom. Sliced thin over Thai black rice with…
A perennial favorite, and great kid food that also satisfies a more sophisticated adult palate, I find that this is one of those dishes- like penne all’arrabiata- that is deceptively hard to get just right. The key (apart from cooking the pasta properly) is the integration of the various strong flavors into a near-seamless whole within a sauce that has to be just reduced and oily enough to coat the pasta. When it’s done right,…