Man, has it been nice here. Sunny, well into the 50s, and simply pummeling winter’s stiffening corpse into oblivion. I got a full bed of early, salady things planted, raked, pruned, hacked, and generally kept my heart rate up doing myriad useful things. Yards of primo compost are on the way, with fruit-bearing plants to follow soon behind. Now I know that climate change isn’t real, because braying jackasses like Sean Hannity have pointed out…
Year: 2010
A while back, I crafted an obscenely fabulous burger. But since it had been a while since I wrought such decadence, I felt something similar was in order. To begin with, I had come home with local beef and lamb, and couldn’t decide which I wanted to eat. So I ground some together, adding in a nice fatty heel of duck prosciutto for good measure since the beef was very lean after I trimmed it. I seasoned the grind with garlic, herbs, and finely minced scallions.
Not a great picture, admittedly, but a good example of how about five things can be turned into a pretty satisfying and nutritious dinner in next to no time. To wit: A head of cauliflower, caramelized hard in a pan with a bit of duck prosciutto and olive oil, with garlic and minced dried porcini added towards the end A bag of penne, cooked just shy of al dente A splash of roasted chicken stock…
So the other night I had a hankering for a nice lemony, olivey tagine. We got some chicken thighs, and everything was going as planned when I got it into my head– based on the squishiness of the ground in certain places– that a trip to the garden might be a good idea. And so it was. The beds are mostly thawed, and we got a ton of carrots and parsnips out in no time,…
We went to the city for a night, for a real live date–including dinner at WD-50, which I may write about–made possible by my Brother coming up to hang out with Milo so we could stay at his place. On our way back, we got some fish in the Chelsea Market so we’d have something to eat for dinner. Milo really has a thing for yellowtail sashimi, so I bought a one-pound block of sushi-grade…
A little tweaking and some quality ingredients can take what looks like a pretty ho-hum standard and make it a whole lot more interesting. Case in point: meatloaf and ketchup. The meatloaf was just plain old boring ground turkey, but I used a good-sized spoonful of freshly ground magic spice blend (see here) and the remains of the duck breast from a couple of posts ago minced fine to add extra flavor and richness. I…
My March article about baking bread is up now on the Chronogram site. Have at it. Bread from the oven of William Alexander, author of the upcoming book “52 Loaves.” Photo by Jennifer May. I also linked this to yeastspotting, because they loves them some homemade bread.
An inauguration, of sorts, for the new kitchen, in that I actually took a few minutes to plan and think through a whole meal for the first time in a month. I had been to the store to get a few things, and as I always do at this time of year I grabbed winter veggies: leeks, fennel, turnips, and kale. I knew we had a duck breast in the freezer, and there were some…
Before: After: All told, it came in at just about two weeks of work, though spread out over three. There’s a bit more to do, but it’s all minor aesthetic stuff like trim and paint and doors for over the hood. I’ll get to all that much later–probably after the garden is planted. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go fondle my butcher block.
On my way back from Newark airport after dropping the family off, I accidentally bought this beautiful Le Creuset dish. Then, once the kitchen was functional and said family had been fetched and reinstalled here at home, it sort of seemed important that I take it for a spin on our new 101,000 BTU stove (not counting the oven, of course). I dusted chicken legs with a mixture of flour, salt, and spices (all in…