For the last two Thanksgivings I have thrown down 11-course extravaganzas (links here and here; menu for second link here) which took days to make and hours to eat. This time around, we were to have the meal in Vermont, and I just couldn’t deal with having to bring lots of components and more than a few tools, gadgets, and plates to do it there. So I just did a straight-up all-on-the-plate at once dinner,…
Month: November 2009
The wife is afflicted with a seasonally induced craving for cranberry sauce, and she’s been buying bags of berries on a regular basis. Yesterday, she made a big pot of sauce, and then asked me “what do we have in the freezer that goes with cranberry sauce?” The answer: “Quail.” In this way was dinner determined. I had various pieces of a goose undergoing various operations in fridge, stove, and oven, so I figured I’d…
I’ve been getting earnest requests lately for authentic Chinese and Indian food; up here in the sticks the choices are pretty slim, especially after a decade in the Best Ethnic Takeout City in the whole world™. I tried some Chinese the other night, but got lazy and basically combined two dishes’ worth of food into one and made a muddy (if decent-tasting) mess. The key there is to feature each ingredient in its own dish,…
Local 10-grain mix pressure-cooked with beets. Lentils simmered with onions, herbs, homemade bacon and smoked chicken broth. Green mash made with curly endive, pan di zucchero, ume plum, pumpkin seeds, and olive oil. All kinds of awesome.
OK, I skipped a day, but it’s not too shabby considering how much work I have to do. (And considering how half-assed most bloggers are). Even with all the many tasks at hand, I found time to make some decent dinners and write about them. (Last night we ordered pizza, because I had an article due, and I dug up a photo from the recent archives to fill in another wee lacuna). And the pizza…
This soup bears a resemblance to the soup I linked to in yesterday’s post- it’s wontons, broth, and some vegetables. But the flavors were completely different. To start with, the broth was made from a smoked chicken carcass I saved from my birthday party on Sunday, just simmered with a little carrot, onion, and celery for about two hours. The wontons (round wrappers this time) were filled with ground local veal seasoned with grated ginger…
This is from a while ago, actually- back around the time I made merguez wontons in turkey phở. The leftover merguez mixture- after a day or two in the fridge to get extra sausagey- was the base for a pasta sauce with the last of the local heirloom tomatoes, garlic, onion, herbs, and white wine. I reduced it to a rich thickness, and tossed in a bunch of Israeli couscous. Just ridiculous. If Chef Boy-ar-dee…
We continue to have an incredibly mild and beautiful November, and in-between food- not too heavy, not too light- is working famously. I came across a decent-looking garlic sausage (with pistachios) recently at a store while looking for something else. My first thought was cassoulet, but since we’re out of duck confit that had to wait. And since I’ve been in a bistroey mood of late, the lentils in the pantry took care of the…
There is no greater resource than a well-stocked freezer. (Except maybe a well-stocked freezer working in harmony with an equally well-stocked pantry.) There are still a couple of quarts of frozen fish stock that I made a while back from a halibut skeleton, and the presence of a big bag of snow crab legs just above the stock containers got the wheels turning. There was also a bag of a rice blend- long, short, and…
We’re still having the most gorgeous warm weather, and it has been energizing me in and out of the kitchen. I found a couple of lamb steaks in the freezer, and while they were thawing I pulled some roots. Thinking old-school bistro, and with enough time to do it properly, I made mayonnaise with mustard and yuzu juice, then used that along with yogurt, capers, cornichons, kimchi juice, and herbs to make rémoulade. I tossed…