No, not the movie (which we still haven’t seen.) But a combination of old and new- some of the party leftovers (Nina’s ratatouille, all the grilled veggies that didn’t fit in my pie, etc.) added to a heavenly mirepoix of our own onion, fennel, celery, carrot and blessed guanciale after deglazing with a few dregs also remaining in a couple of bottles. A word on this mirepoix: I can honestly say that of the many…
cookblog Posts
Word spread, and many showed up for a pot luck party. Highlights from the food included ceviche of halibut and grilled side of wild salmon, roasted potato salad, braised seitan with port, ratatouille, and the six chickens I smoked and served over homegrown and fermented kale shredded like sauerkraut. I also made a torta rustica– a many-layered vegetable and cheese pie encased in pizza crust- which tasted great but fell apart once cut open. The…
Jody, Anna, and Isabel joined us for the weekend, and a party started to coalesce around Monday afternoon, so we kept it simple for their first night. A 28-day dry aged top sirloin from Fleisher’s was the centerpiece- this is one of the great steaks of the world, with intense flavor and the perfect balance of tenderness and chewy character; normally we don’t eat much beef, preferring the more flavorful lamb and duck or pork,…
The perfect freshness and intense complexity of our homegrown mirepoix has really made an impression on me, and I want to use it in everything. To that end, I plan on chopping a vast quantity and then blanching and freezing the mixture in small bags for use throughout the winter. Who knew celery could actually be exciting? So tonight, a clean take on fried chicken and gravy: cornmeal/spice crusted chicken legs well browned in the…
We went over to C&S’s house, bringing some of the duck confit (Chris’ favorite) plus the salsa, tortillas, a smoked coffee-tamarind-molasses-red wine-agave reduction to go with the duck (which tasted like mutant hoisin sauce) and some red snapper. I made a ceviche with the fish, citrus juice, celery, onion, and cilantro, and they made a salad, guacamole, and pulled out a turnip-hijiki dish from the day before. So we had soft tacos with either ceviche…
Given a pound of ground beef the options are limited only by what else is in the kitchen. Having a garden means being able to make a million dinners on any given day. One of my go-to dishes is a Bolognese pasta- especially on a day like today, which I spent cutting an entire sheet of MDF into ornate shapes with a jigsaw- so I modified the usual recipe to include nothing but our own…
I pickled beets and turnips a couple of days ago, and had one of each left over, so I steamed them until soft, then puréed them and added egg yolk and rye flour to make gnocchi dough. Today we used it, along with tilapia and garden goodies. Fennel, celery, onion, and carrot sweated while I rolled, cut, and boiled the gnocchi. Then veggies out and gnocchi into the same pan but with duck fat to…
So two mornings ago I started a pre-ferment for the same whole wheat recipe I made last time, intending to bake it in the Dutch oven for a better shape and crust. Come evening, lo and behold, we were out of white flour, and low on whole wheat. So I used rye to make up the difference and kneaded in the pre-ferment and let it sit overnight to develop further and end up like the…
On short notice, Kris invited me down to the city to join them for a celebration. It was well worth the trip. Excellent food, wine, and company. Here’s the menu: Crab Cake and Smoked Trout on Toast 1997 Bollinger Grande Cuvée Mushroom Soup with Bellota Ham of Joselito, Shiitake Mushrooms, 7-day cooked egg yolk & Arbequina Olive Oil Air 1951 Barbeito Sercial Riserva Velha Madeira (from his birth year) Alaskan Wild Scallops with Corn Sauce,…
Needless to say, I got sick too, though not as badly. (Let’s hear it for massive doses of vitamins and echinacea.) Today we all started to feel like normal people again, and the weather shifted from the cold, rainy 60s we’ve had all week to the hot, muggy 80s in the blink of an eye. I caught up on some gardening and preserving: 3 bags of green beans blanched and frozen, another big crock of…