A while back I did a thing with red snapper and red pepper juice, so seeing snapper in the store today I figured I’d try a variation with some carrot juice thrown in. And then I remembered the blue potatoes. In back there are cubes of caramelized turnip with onion, to the right the potatoes mashed with Greek yogurt, all around is the pepper-carrot juice reduction, and on top of the crispy fish is the…
Month: January 2008
Wanting something vegetable-based, and given what was in the fridge, I turned as so often before to Indian ideas. Vegetarian food is so often much more interesting with South or East Asian techniques (although dear Italy still offers pretty stiff competition.) Thus was born another tofu curry, with a little milk and half a baked sweet potato to thicken it, as well as carrot, leek, onion, and our own frozen peas. I turned some lavash…
For Liz’s birthday this year, a much mellower gathering than last time, and everyone brought something. My contribution was this multi-layer crêpe tart with mushroom duxelles between the crêpes and truffle butter brushed on top. You can’t really tell in the picture, but it was really nice and layery once cut. Other dishes included braised radicchio, ceviche of halibut, baked wild salmon, pastis-flambéed shrimp, salad, and some other things I’m forgetting now. Dessert was an…
We’ve had this wretched flu all week, and are only just climbing out from under it, so this was a meal worthy of such a hangover. (My Father is English, and when I was living there spent a memorable weekend in Sheffield- late-night Dalek imitation with trash cans was involved- with friends where we soothed throbbing heads with eggs, beans, chips, toast, mushy peas and pints of tea.) I had the foresight to soak pinto…
Christine’s favorite: onion, olive, garlic, caper, and fresh mozzarella. The other one was pesto and dried tomato. The dough only had 2 hours to rise but it came out all right- still miles better than any purchased alternative. Half white/half whole wheat seems to work pretty well.
This is totally standard roast chicken, roasted roots (carrot, sweet potato, parsnip, onion, garlic, fingerlings, rosemary) and brown rice. Taking it to a special level of extreme deliciousness was the gravy; to the roux that the pan drippings made, carving juices, then minced preserved lemon and a big dollop of pesto. It transformed everything it touched. We had our very last 2001 Domaine la Millière CDP. I will miss them; for 20 bucks it was…
So the other week, trying to find high-end provisions for the fancy dinner, on a whim I turned into this place on an ugly stretch of an ugly main road because the sign says caviar and I figured they might also have truffles. Bingo. Now the truffles were not fresh, but in a jar, but they sure did the job. And in addition, they had the elk, foie gras, and a bunch of other stuff…
Again, the leftovers spoke, supplemented by Gruyère from the store and thus was dinner made. First, a couple of onions, nicely caramelized, were transformed as if by magic into some pretty fab soup with the addition of the rest of the beef broth I made for the 10-grain risotto. I cut the marrow into pieces and threw that in, too. Now I know this is supposed to be subsequently baked in a little dedicated onion…
Often color is my jumping-off point for figuring out what to make for dinner; it’s my training, and a big part of what I do professionally. So Christine’s purchase of some sole combined with the braised cabbage already in the fridge (and the desire to try a variation on the cornmeal crust from last week) all led to this. Parsnips are incredibly sweet right now- one of the blessings of winter- so I steamed a…
I liked the 10-grain “risotto” from the other night, so I tried a different version. Since I had grabbed some beef bones at Fleisher’s recently, I roasted them and then made a simple stock (saving the marrow for something else.) Cooked like risotto, with parsnip added for sweetness and contrast, the variety of grains all cooked at different rates; some disintegrated into creamy starch, while others stayed intact and remained al dente. The result was…