I made beet salad the other day, and saved the cooking liquid for something else; it’s not as strong as actual beet juice, but a decent substitute. So I reduced it with soy sauce and honey while I seared up some nice wild salmon (I also made the rubbed shrimp like we had before Xmas as an appetizer) and refried some brown rice with cherry tomatoes. Broccoli raab with smashed garlic and lemon cleaned up…
cookblog Posts
The shrimp shells left from making the shumai yesterday became the base for tonight’s dinner; along with an onion and garlic, plus some white wine, they simmered into a really nice broth. Bean thread noodles and blanched baby bok choy rounded out the soup, and scallions and cilantro finished it. We drank the rest of the cheap white- a 120 Sauvignon Blanc- which for 6 bucks was peachy, had good acidity, and went well with…
I spent the day making various finger foods for John and Debi’s party; he and I had worked out a vague plan so I contributed 4 things to what turned out to be an incredible night of food, champagne, and dancing. We made pie crust, and with my half I used a muffin tin to make little shells. These got filled with grated gruyère, then caramelized onions, then a pinch more cheese, then pine nuts…
John came over to make pie crust for their party, so we opened a couple of old Burgs I bought for a song in Kingston: a 1976 Drouhin Clos des Mouches and a 1978 Geoffroy Clos Prieur. The Gevrey-Chamb was the favorite, but over time the Beaune gained some sweetness. John left before we ate another Moroccan chicken stew with preserved lemon, olives, and sweet potatoes. By the end of the night the wines were…
Our friend and neighbor Mimi came over, and I made Indian food (or an approximation thereof.) Chick peas simmered in coconut milk, tomato paste, spices, and capon broth I made the day before from the carcass had broccoli added at the end so they would stay bright green. I also sautéed Kale with onion, garlic and lemon, and mashed sweet potatoes with ginger and cinnamon. The burdock/shiitake gravy had many spices added to it and…
Alan had to go home, but the rest of us schlepped up to Vermont for more eating and occasional walks with the kids. The first night we had more steaks, which had marinated since before Christmas in a bit of soy and rice vinegar, then got a rub of coffee, garlic, pepper, salt, and grated dried Chinese mushrooms (the intensely chocolatey ones, which were the inspiration for the cappucino-mushroom soup that I’ll get to someday)…
Mat & Emily, Andrew, and Alan joined us for Christmas dinner. We roasted a capon, stuffed with our version of her Mom’s stuffing: whole wheat bread, onion, celery, shiitake, Moroccan lemon, smoked pork broth, lots of herbs, and that which did not fit into the bird got well basted with fat and baked in a pan separately. Along with the bird came roasted kabocha squash, gravy made from a purée of burdock and dried Chinese…
As per Christine’s family tradition, we had pea soup for dinner. This one was pretty great, since it had layers of flavors due to its composition; the last of the frozen smoked rib-based soup from the summer, plus smoked pork broth from the huge hunk that ended up as pulled pork, plus a new batch that began with bacon and finished with Fleisher’s homemade kielbasa. All added together, and simmmered until the new peas were…
Chris, Sirkka, and Nissa all came for dinner before their trip, and I had gone shopping for Christmas so we had lots of good stuff in the house. First, the last of the cauliflower soup, increased a bit with more milk and butter, then served in little cups and finished with pepper and a drop of truffle oil. Then, big shrimp, cleaned but with the shells on, dredged in cumin, cinnamon, pepper, salt, curry, garlic,…
As a sort of Hanukkah meal I made sweet potato latkes, pan-seared salmon, and kale. The latkes really worked; while much less fatty than traditional ones, they had a lot of flavor and covered the full spectrum of texture from crunchy outside to creamy farther in and still a bit al dente in the middle. The salmon got an apple cider/honey/soy reduction and we washed it down with another Pleiades.