Taste Adventures

And The Winner Is....

2009-02-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I have to apologize for being remiss in posting my decision for this month's Paper Chef (#37). Chalk it up to being at the end of a big work project and needing some time away from the computer. This being a holiday weekend added to the delay. But, here it is, at long last.

Seems a lot of people have issues with the idea of cheese and liver. I didn't expect that - there are so many varieties of cheese to choose from. Well, parmesan definitely wins out. It looks like those of us who did participate immediately though of salty Parmesan as a perfect complement to the liver. I think any grating cheese would work - asiago, romano, etc. I used mascarpone as well, and I'd think any mild cheese would also be a possibility (like putting ricotta in the raviolis). So I didn't think this would be that difficult. Oh, well.

OK, on to the judging. First, the Roundup:
I'll start with my entry:

sautéed liver on creamy, cheesy polenta topped off with a mix of lightly fried shallots, apple, chopped chestnuts, and bacon, served with an herb salad and garnished with whole chestnuts, parmesan, and apple slices. Of course, I can't vote for myself, and it wasn't popular, but I promise it was really good. I'd make it again if Mr. Picky would eat liver. I probably will make it with chicken instead, because everything else was so good.
Next is Mikey's:

Ravioli, stuffed with liver, chestnut & parmesan, and a oregano butter sauce. He had a bit of a time getting the ingredients and made me really happy I live in a warmer climate. This sounded very, very tasty to me.
Ilva's entry

was calf's liver with chestnuts and capers braised in balsamic vinegar served with parmesan and oregano biscuits. I loved the idea of the capers, but I'm not so sure I'd like them with balsamic. The biscuits sound wonderful though.
And finally, Magnus offered us

chicken paté on salad of almonds, orgegano, bacon, spring onion topped of with a savory tuile. I loved the idea of the tuile. Unfortunately, he didn't find chestnuts, and had to substitute almonds. I'd liked to have seen the oregano used in the paté instead of thyme, but it still sounded like a very tasty dish.

So, you can probably see where I'm going with this. I'm going with Spikey Mikey's ravioli. I thought it was simple but inspired. Congratulations, Mikey!

As for the People's Choice, this month was a tie between Mikey and Ilva, so congrats to you both!

Paper Chef #37 - Liver Challenge!

2009-02-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

I just finished making and styling my entry for this month. I didn't find it at all difficult, but then I had a bit of an idea of a way to tie the ingredients together when I selected them. My idea: creamy, cheesy, polenta. Add to that being inspired by Jamie Lauren's lovely herby parsley salad at Absinthe over the weekend, and an idea was born.

I always think of liver as just another opportunity to consume bacon, so of course, I had to have some in this dish. I started with bacon, apples, and shallots, all in fine dice. Sauteed the bacon, drained, then sauteed the apples and shallots in the drippings. I also chopped some packaged steamed chestnuts, chives, and Greek oregano from my pot garden.

For the herb salad, I used fresh parsley leaves, chives cut in to 1" pieces, and some of the smaller oregano leaves. Made an herby vinaigrette from apple cider vinegar, EVOO, chives, oregano, salt, and freshly grated black pepper. I also sliced some apple thinly and chopped a chestnut for garnish.

Next, I made a creamy polenta with chicken stock, and stirred in 2 oz. freshly grated Parmiggiano Reggiano, 2 big tablespoonsful of mascarpone, and 1/4 cup of heavy cream and seasoned with salt and white pepper.

Finally, the liver. I had two pieces, one large and one quite small. I dredged in flour, and added some oil to the saute pan with the bacon drippings, and sauteed lightly to brown. Took out the liver, and deglazed with apple juice, then added chives, oregano, salt, and white pepper, and put the liver back in to simmer and finish cooking. When the liver was just done (still slightly pink-the key to keeping it moist), I strained the liquid, added 2 tbsp. dry sherry, and reduced and seasoned. When it was reduced to about 1/2 cup, I stirred the bacon, apple, shallot, and chestnut dice in and seasoned.

I have to say this turned out really good. The only caveat is that I should have de-veined the larger piece of liver. The apple, parmesan, and oregano tied everything together nicely, and I'm sitting her right now licking up the last bits of bacon-apple-shallot-chestnut goodness. The herb salad added a nice brightness to what would have been a pretty rich meal, so thanks Jamie!

Now I definitely need to go work out.

Cooking Light(er)

2009-02-09T10:30:00.000-08:00

When I recently topped my highest-ever weight, I sort of freaked out, so I've been trying to cook a bit lighter and have been staying away from ice cream for the most part. I also bought a Pilates reformer, which is a wondrous thing. I've always like weight work, but now that I don't go "out" to work, I rarely get to the gym. I have a fairly high-end treadmill, and I used to have a Bow-Flex, but it was unstable and difficult to use, so I rarely used it. The reformer, on the other hand, is smooth and steady, and my poor blown knees love that I'm not adding stress to them. So, I'm down six pounds this month, and hoping for another 10 or so. Probably wishful thinking, but at least I'm getting more toned.

I'm not much of a believer in dieting; whenever I gain weight it's always because I've gone into slug mode and stopped exercising. But I am trying to save the higher calorie meals for weekends and for eating out. Since I've had quite a few nice meals out this month, my cooking at home has been pretty subdued, which explains the dearth of posting here.

I'm still not giving up on the ice cream machine, but for now I'm trying to do more sorbet than ice cream. I had four Meyer lemons left on my tree, and picked up eight more at Trader Joe's, and made a nice slightly tart sorbet on Saturday that I'll have if I get a craving for frozen dessert during the week.

Yesterday I went to Farmer's Market for the first time in a month, and there were wondrous things to be had. Blood oranges, spring garlic, lovely brassicas, tiny baby turnips, and baby carrots, to name a few. I was planning to make an oxtail soup anyway, so I was inspired to make it with some of these lovelies. It was well worth the time and effort - after four hours of simmering and stirring, I had a robust winter soup of thick oxtail broth, baby turnips, carrots, and potatoes, laced with some medium-dry sherry (Amontillado, to be precise).

As always, I bought WAY too many veggies for two people to use in a week, so I'm going to have to do more cooking this week than I'd intended. I have a perfectly gorgeous head of cauliflower and two wondrous cabbages to use. The cabbages will be easy - I have a corned beef brisket in the freezer that keeps calling to me (which was supposed to be for a traditional New Year's Day dinner that never happened). Not sure what to do with the cauliflower at this point.

Well, anyway, I wanted to eat dinner at a reasonable hour last night, and the soup wasn't going to be done until after 8, so I tore up some butter lettuce and made a nice white balsamic/herb vinaigrette, and then pan sauteed some nice fresh snapper fillets (dredged in seasoned flour) with whole baby carrots, which were finished with a light squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of lemon-thyme and chives. Yes, I'm guilty of using butter to saute, but as I said, I don't really DIET. It was still what I'd consider a "light" dinner, for me at least. It was pretty tasty, and I left room to have a tiny scoop of coffee ice cream.

Tonight I'm doing my Paper Chef entry and can't wait to tackle the lovely calves' liver I picked up at Lunardi's Market. I also got some nice bacon, which is definitely going into the recipe. I haven't decided on which of the several cheeses I'm considering, so you'll have to wait for tomorrow. Stay tuned!

A Birthday Treat

2009-02-07T14:13:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday (please don't ask which-sigh). We are season subscribers to SF Ballet, and had tix to the mixed repertory performance, so I wanted to eat somewhere in the Van Ness area. Now, I'm a huge fan of cooking shows, and have been watching Top Chef religiously the last couple of seasons. I really loved some of the things Jamie Lauren was doing on the show, and so I made a reservation at Absinthe, where she's Exec. chef. I made the reservation through OpenTable, and put in a note that I'd like to meet her if she was there, but didn't really expect that to come to anything.

John and I take BART to the city, and as usual on a Friday night, the train was late, so I called to let the restaurant know. They were very gracious and agreed to hold the table. When we got there, the bar was packed and it was quite noisy, but we were seated promptly and were able to converse easily despite being fairly near the bar.

For my appetizer, I ordered the roasted marrow bone "shared plate", and John decided on the French onion soup. Of course, I ordered the scallops for my entree, thinking of Top Chef's Fabio's comment about Jamie's scallops, "It's Top Chef, not Top Scallops!" John ordered the stuffed chicken. We talked and munched on the good bread and waited and after a rather long wait the maitre d' informed us that Jamie had looked at my marrow bones and decided that they were not good ones, and was doing them over. So, she actually WAS there! And he said she'd be out later to meet me. I was really excited! Then she sent out two appetizers so we'd have something while we waited - the spiced fried chickpeas and the pommes frites. They were both tasty, and the chickpeas were addictive, but we restrained ourselves from downing all the frites in anticipation of our orders.

When they did come out, both appetizers were wonderful. My marrow bones were perfect, with a sprinkling of sea salt, a head of roasted garlic, buttered toast, and a really lovely herb salad (mostly parsley and chives - very nice and not bitter like many herb salads). John could barely talk he was so busy with his soup; it's not often that he relishes food so much, what with his picky tastes. The entrees were also really good - yes, those scallops were perfectly seared, and I really loved the sunchoke puree. John, as usual, didn't eat much other than the chicken, saying he was too full to eat more. His Brussels sprouts looked amazing though, so I'm sure they were really good.

And yes, Jamie did come out to meet us and she was really gracious and sweet. I was just thrilled. She and the staff wished me a happy birthday, and when my dessert, the lemon panna cotta, came out it had Happy Birthday on the plate in chocolate with a candle to blow out. The panna cotta was perfect - light and creamy under a light lemon gelatin, with a nice dollop of huckleberry compote on top and a lemon thyme tuile. Mmmmm.

All in all, despite BART delays and marrow bone mishaps, both dinner and the ballet were wonderful. What a great birthday it was!

Paper Chef #37 - Ingredients Up!

2009-02-04T12:18:00.000-08:00

Having won last month's Paper Chef competition, it's my turn to select the ingredients and judge this month's entries. PRESSURE! The random list of ingredients from which to choose was really interesting. Since Spikey Mikey's choices last month were a bit perplexing (at least to me), I thought I should try keep things challenging this month, so my three random ingredients from the list are:

Liver (and I'm going to specify calves' liver to keep things interesting)
Cheese
Oregano

And the "secret" ingredient is (da, da, da, da!):

Chestnuts!

Rules and Regulations are here: http://paperchef.blogspot.com/2008/06/rules-and-regulations.html. Post your entry by Tuesday noon (where you live) to send it to paperchef AT gmail DOT com.

Let's get cooking!

Ski In, Ski Out

2009-02-04T12:06:00.001-08:00

Our timeshare at Park City Mountain Resort is ski-in, ski-out, making eating in very attractive, even at lunch time. Ski up to the gate, hide skis behind a post, tramp up to the room, munch, tramp back to the gate, jump into skis, and hop on the lift. Pretty nifty - and well worth the cost. I always ask myself what we were thinking all those years we booked lodging on a bus route rather than at the base. DUH!

As noted in my last post, we ended up having a whole lot of mussels in marinara sauce left from dinner at Easy Street Brasserie. Hmm. John used to like mussels, but since he's become pickier by the year, they have now been taken off the (short) list of things he'll eat. Well, a couple of nights earlier I'd made some whole grain spaghetti with packaged Bertolli marinara, and had 1/2 box of pasta left. It also turned out that I'd forgotten to put the smoked salmon we'd bought into the sauce, so that pretty much solved the dilemma. I cooked the remaining pasta in the electric skillet, drained it, and added my leftovers from Easy Street and the smoked salmon (cut into chunks). I got the mussels, he got the salmon, and everyone was happy. The sauce was even better the second day. Added a salad, bread (with olive oil and balsamic for dipping), and had a terrific meal even without a stove.

The rest of our meals were pretty nondescript - salads, canned soup, etc. We're pretty boring when we ski (even more than usual, that is).

Park City Adventures

2009-02-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

VACATION! SKIING! John and I were in Park City for our annual ski week last week, so no blogging when there's powder out there! Actually, it was a very strange week. Arrived Friday afternoon, and the snow didn't look too good. Saturday it was raining. I wanted to stay in and not waste a lift ticket on crappy skiing, but he talked me into going out. Turned out the snow at the summit wasn't too bad, but after 3 hours we were so wet we were both ready to quit. That's a good thing - we weren't sore the next morning. The weather got better and better through the week - snow showers Sunday, two feet of powder Monday, more snow showers Tuesday, and sun, sun, sun on Thursday and Friday. Only crashed a couple of times, and no injuries, so it was a great week. It was my first time skiing in a knee brace (thanks to blowing my ACL last April), and I only skied a couple of blacks, but we still had a great time.

So, you ask, what about the FOOD?
We usually go out only a couple of times on a ski trip. This year we were pretty conservative - no really pricy meals, but we did get some tasty ones. We didn't go out until Monday, as Sundance was still on when we arrived and we knew it would be crazy in town. Monday we decided to go someplace pretty casual - Easy Street Brasserie. We've been there before and enjoyed it. I had their lobster bisque, which was wonderful, but it was so rich I wasn't very hungry for the "Big Bowl of Mussels" entree I'd ordered. It was good, too, but really, how many mussels can one girl eat? Staying in a tiny condo (it was our year for the "lock-off" studio portion of our timeshare) left us with few cooking options (micro and electric skillet), but the marinara sauce on the mussels was so good we decided to take it with us and have seafood marinara pasta the next night. More on that later. John had the Hill Country Quesadilla and a Caesar salad. He was happy with both, though he complained a bit that there was a drizzle on the quesadilla (he's SO picky!). The quesadilla was stuffed with chorizo, and looked yummy.
Our other downtown dining night we went to Butcher's Chophouse. I was hungry for BEEF. I got the prime rib, and he got a filet (plain, boring). I also had the beet salad, which was WAY too much food, so that ended up being turned into a sandwich for lunch the next day. Butcher's was OK, but nothing to blog/brag about. Beef is beef, after all.
Finally, to avoid a second trip to Albertson's, we went to the little Thai place at the resort base on Thursday. Pretty good larb gai, panang curry, and tom kha goong, but nothing spectacular. Cheap enough, though, considering it's a resort.
The only disappointment was that we didn't get to go to the Blind Dog this year. It's our favorite Park City restaurant, but with Sundance going on we knew we wouldn't get in on the weekend. Oh, well, there's always next year!

Paper Chef #36 - I Won!

2009-01-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

Well, this is very exciting! Mike, of Spikey Mikeys has declared me the winner of the February Paper Chef competition. There weren't a lot of entries this month, but the ingredients were pretty tricky, and I have to admit that my dish (pepper crusted London broil with chili-vanilla balsamic cream and chili-avocado barley pilaf) was pretty tasty and just what I needed after all the heaving eating in December. Anyway, thanks Mike! I'm looking forward to judging next month's competition and coming up with a fun/challenging secret ingredient.

Chili-Vanilla Balsamic Creme

2009-01-13T11:07:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems interested in the creme, so here's a "recipe" (I'm a cook-by-tasting person, so it's not going to be exact). I used about 1/4 cup of creme fraiche, and about 1/4 tsp each of crushed green and pink peppercorns. I did not have a vanilla pod handy, so I added some Madagascar vanilla extract, and some (like 3/4 tsp. maybe?) balsamic vinegar. Added salt, then more vanilla, tasting until it was not too sweet. The vanilla surprisingly offset the sweetness of the balsamic - probably because I used extract. I just kept adjusting the flavors salt, balsamic, and vanilla until I had something I liked. Then I added some spice by adding a bit of the chopped guajillo pepper I had soaked in the barley tea used for cooking the barley.

Barley tea is a Korean beverage - it comes in "tea" bags. I buy packages of them at the 99 Ranch Market. I'm kind of a barley tea addict!

Paper Chef 36

2009-01-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

For this month's Paper Chef, my entry is pepper crusted London broil with chili-vanilla balsamic cream and chili-avocado barley pilaf. I thought this month's ingredients were really challenging. The randomizer selected barley, dried chili, and vanilla, and this month's judge, Spikey Mikey, was kind and gave us beef as the fourth ingredient. I've been really busy so I thought I'd do something simple with some leftover rare London broil that I made Monday evening. When I made it, I sort of had Paper Chef in mind, and coated it in a dry crushed pepper mix before searing in a grill pan. I love chilled rare beef, so I just sliced it thinly and plated it with a cool chili-vanilla-balsamic sauce with some creme fraiche as the base. Surprisingly, it took quite a bit of vanilla extract to balance the flavors. On the side I added a barley pilaf made by soaking dried guajillo peppers in barley tea to rehydrate them, and then cooking the barley in the liquid. I find barley pretty bland, so I added quite a bit of chopped chili and some pink and green peppercorns, plus a bit of shallot, avocado, and lemon juice, and sprinkled it with additional chopped chili from the barley tea. It was really tasty - the cream had some sweetness to balance the acidity of the pilaf and since the chilis were not hot the peppercorns added just the right amount of bite and a bit of crunch. It was yummy!

Holiday Dining

2008-12-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

I opted to stay out of both the kitchen and stores for the holidays, so we ate in a lot of restaurants the past few weeks. First, there was Citizen Cake in SF and Seven in San Jose (see below). Then, my husband and I stopped at Massimo in Walnut Creek after going to see the local Christmas Carol performance at Lesher Center on Friday night. We were seated promptly and I thought the menu was great. My picky husband went for the nightly pasta special - spaghetti! Ho, hum, I said. It was a chilly night so I wanted winter comfort food - and what could be better than rabbit with polenta. Their "Rabbit Three Ways" (confit, seared, and braised) was excellent, but the polenta was an out-of-body experience. It was simply wonderful, and the portions were large so I had enough for lunch another day. I highly recommend this restaurant.

Saturday we had a Sharks game, so we went to the bar at the De Anza hotel in San Jose. They have the best bar food. I love the grilled prawns with oranges and balsamic, and the carpaccio is amazing. Good pizzas too.

The following Monday, Sandy and I went to the movies in Albany. Ajanta Indian restaurant is close by, so we went there for dinner. We'd eaten there once before and loved it, and I've been wanting to go back. We had the scallop appetizer, which was nothing special, but the entrees we shared, Badami Murg and Palak Kofta, were both really tasty. We ordered medium spice, which was perfect.

Tuesday we had another Sharks game, so out again for dinner, but we were running late so we just went to Quizno's. We did at least stay home on Christmas Eve, and had a nice cheese fondue with apples, sausage, and baguette for dipping. This is a long-standing tradition for us, and was followed by the umpteenth viewing of Edward Scissorhands and then opening gifts. [Why, you might ask, would anyone want to watch Edward S. on Christmas Eve? Because, well, it IS a story about why it would snow in a bedroom suburb in California, isn't it?!]

For Christmas dinner, we decided to splurge and go to Jordan's at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. They have a buffet that's pretty amazing, although so is the price ($89). We had a table with great views of the bay and the city, and I definitely got my money's worth - crab, shrimp, salads, breakfast food (gingerbread waffles, BACON, sausage, wonderful eggs benedict), and the usual holiday fare (turkey/ham/prime rib). Of course, it was all lost on Mr. Picky, who ate about $7 worth of food. Should have taken him to Quizno's, I suppose. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, although it will probably be a one-time thing. After dinner, we had a nice drive out to the Berkeley marina and enjoyed the scenery before going to see Seven Pounds at the Shattuck Cinema. Good flick, if you like to laugh AND cry. But we are serious Will Smith fans, so how could it be bad?

The day after Christmas (you'd think we'd have been sick of going out, wouldn't you?) we had Nutcracker tix in SF, so I had made a reservation at Jardiniere for after the performance. We arrived 1/2 hour early (but they knew we were coming from the ballet and had our table ready), were seated promptly, and had a nice table overlooking the bar. Luckily, there were several menu choices for Mr. Picky, including his favorite soup, butternut squash. I had the duck confit salad, which was really tasty, and he loved the soup. For entrees, he had the short rib, and I had the sea bass, which was one of the best fish dishes I've ever had. It was served with crispy skin over a bed of roasted veggies that were caramelized to perfection. Mr. Picky scarfed his entire plate, so I know he enjoyed it. In fact, he wants to go back. Now if we can just get a reservation at a normal dining time! It's no wonder the place is so popular.

OK, I should have been tired of dining out by then, right? Well, no, on Saturday I had a lunch with friends at Amarin Thai in Lafayette, a place I love despite it not being particularly authentic. The food is just consistently good, and it's a nice place for lunch when the knitting bug hits because there are TWO yarn stores in walking distance. So, a fun but expensive afternoon was had by all.

Finally, the dining binge ended Saturday evening with a visit to a local favorite, Left Bank in Pleasant Hill. We were taking the ex-sister-in-law and nieces out for dinner. The girls are picky, so with 3 picky eaters in the group Left Bank usually works. Well, the food was good, but the service was horrible. Our reservation was for 6:45, and we finally left at 9:00. Good thing they brought lots of bread to the table. Apparently they have a new chef and he sort of lost control of the kitchen. They apologized with an order of profiteroles for the table, so we were somewhat mollified. I sure hope they go back to their usual speedy service in the future.

That's it! Sunday night I made marinated, sauteed chicken breasts and salad at home. It would have been memorable if we hadn't spent the entire evening addressing our (late) holiday cards.

Sandy's Birthday

2008-12-29T14:39:00.000-08:00

My friend Sandy's birthday is right before Christmas, so this year we went to see Sarah Brightman in San Jose at HP Pavilion. Being a Sharks ticketholder, I go there fairly often, and have been wanting to try Seven Restaurant on The Alameda, so I decided to take her there as a birthday treat. We opted to share small plates, and we are both oyster lovers so we started with a dozen Hood Canals, which were VERY tasty, served with a nice mignonette. We had a butter lettuce salad with beets, which was nice, and then our favorite dish of the evening, mushroom strudel. Yum. We also had the crispy spaetzle with pancetta, which we really liked, and the chili relleno, which was just OK. For dessert, we had the creme brulee with honey and lavendar, and it was good as well. Service was excellent and we finished in plenty of time to make it to the event. Needless to say, Sarah Brightman was amazing (although her speaking voice is a bit annoying) - boy, can she sing!

Citizen Cake

2008-12-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

My husband and I had tickets to see Phantom of the Opera at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco last night, so I made a reservation for dinner at Citizen Cake since it's only a couple of blocks away. I'd eaten there once before and it was really good, and they have amazing desserts. John is a picky eater so he opted out on the appetizers, but I had their sous vide pork belly with dates and persimmons. Yum! Like pig candy. John had the pork chop with Brussels sprout hash and apple. Mr. Picky said the chop was wonderful, but didn't like the crunchy sprouts and didn't even taste the apples. (I just don't know what to do with him and his food fears!) I had the diver scallops with artichoke puree and fennel. Well, I can only think of one other time I've had scallops I enjoyed this much. For dessert, he had apple crepes with maple ice cream and I had gingerbread custard and vanilla ice cream. And then I went to the cafe and got a couple of small sandwich cookies to take to the theater, one lemon and one chocolate. These were absolutely the best sandwich cookies I've ever eaten. I hate Oreos, but these were truly amazing. We also had a wonder time seeing Phantom again, and this time we had great seats so it was spectacular.

Paper Chef 35

2008-12-10T10:26:00.000-08:00

My entry this month is a "blood" orange risotto cake, with "drunken" Mexican white shrimp in a blood orange vinaigrette. It can be served warm or at room temperature. Unfortunately, I was unable to find real blood oranges (see Market Day below), so I made the vinaigrette with purchased blood orange vinegar and used plain naval oranges for the risotto cake (colored with a bit of red food color to simulate the real thing. The shrimp were marinated and baked in French brandy and Patron orange liqueur and a bit of salt and pepper. They were yummy. The risotto cake was made with orange juice, shrimp stock, orange zest, green onions, and shredded carrot, seasoned to taste. It was a bit sweet, since I used naval oranges instead of blood oranges, which would have been better. After peeling, I dipped the shrimp in the vinaigrette, and it was nice to spoon up a bit with the risotto as well, to help balance the sweetness.

Book Group Dinner

2008-12-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

Well, it was a great success. I do this on occasion, and usually make 10-12 courses. This month was Italian. I even made fresh pasta, lemon sorbet, and ice cream. It was great fun, and I loved seeing all those smiling faces at the table.

The menu:
Firsts
Almonds and olives
Bruschetta with balsamic tomatoes or onion confit
Insalata mista, gorgonzola and walnuts, blood orange vinaigrette
Clementines with balsamic and black pepper

Seconds
Fetuccini with shrimp and lemon basil cream sauce
4-cheese baked ziti
Osso buco with olives and oranges

Sides
Pancetta and sage braised Brussels sprouts
Mushroom risotto, white truffle oil

Desserts
Lemon sorbet
Mascarpone ice cream
Carmelized pears with brandy
Honeyed figs

I also made dungeness crab ravioli with vodka sauce, but forget to cook the ravioli so my husband and I had it last night. It was probably good that I waited - I haven't hand made ravioli in a while so it could have been prettier. It was tasty though.

My friend Sandy said "I think the clementines, the tomato bruschetta, the osso bucco, and the fettuccine were my favs – oh, and have to add the risotto and the pears!" So I guess I did OK this month, and had lots of fun too. I even managed to finish the book while stirring the risotto!

Market Day

2008-12-10T10:16:00.000-08:00

This week is both the Paper Chef competition and my week to cook a feast for my book group. Paper Chef's ingredients this month are blood oranges, brandy, crustacean, and rice. Thought this would be no problem, but couldn't find blood oranges anywhere. I found them two weeks ago at Trader Joes and Concord Produce, but I went everywhere today and none were to be found. I did find some blood orange vinegar at Whole Foods, so I'll use that. But I had great luck with Mexican white shrimp with heads on at Concord Produce, and am making risotto for one of the dishes for the book group, so I'll try a risotto cake for the Paper Chef too. Stay tuned!

Vegas, Baby!

2008-11-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

I just came home from a quick trip to Las Vegas to visit some friends. I lived there for close to four years, and feel a need to go back about every six months to get a dose of unreality, visit friends, and see the Bellagio fountains. Usually we go out to eat in some new place I haven't tried before, but this time we went to one of my husband and my favorite places on the west side, Cafe Wasabi. I have to say I was a bit disappointed, as the food was not quite as good as I remember. It's a sushi bar but also used to focus on Asian tapas. Those items are still on the menu, but relegated to the bottom and not highlighted in any way so they are kind of easy to miss now. The restaurant used to be really fun and vibrant, but it was completely empty at 8:00 on a Friday night, and the place is starting to look a bit dingy. In 2004 the lobster spring rolls and crab potstickers were to die for, but they've started using surimi instead of crab and there was no discernable lobster in the spring rolls, so they weren't anything to write home about. However, the ribs were still wonderful and nothing was really bad, just not as good as it used to be. The economic downturn has taken a toll, I guess.

The highlight of the trip was having my friend Janet, a died-in-the-wool Tar Heel, make me fried chicken. It was yummy. None of that batter dipped or buttermilk soaked stuff - just seasoned and dredged and fried. We made an awesome salad with maple syrup roasted butternut squash and dried cranberries, roasted vegetables (asparagus, haricots vert, parsnips, and fingerling potatoes), and cheese biscuits. I'm still dreaming of those biscuits. Thanks, Janet!

Paper Chef #34

2008-11-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

I finally found time to participate in Paper Chef, which is a bit like Iron Chef but you get 4 ingredients instead of one and send entries via e-mail. Loved this month's ingredients (turkey, winter squash, Anaheim peppers, and lentils) provided by this month's judge, Magnus, and had a lot of fun coming up with this dish.

Smoked Turkey Hash with Lentil Griddle Cakes

Ingredients:

Lentils for griddle cakes (make ahead)
½ c. dry lentils
1 tsp. ground cumin (or less if preferred)
½ tsp. ground coriander
Fresh ground pepper to taste.

Cook lentils in 2 cups water seasoned with spices for approx. 30 minutes or until tender but not mushy. DO NOT SALT. Cool and drain.

Smoked Turkey Hash (may be made ahead)

1 shallot, small dice
½ Anaheim pepper, small dice
1 cup butternut squash, medium dice
Diced smoked turkey (I used pre-cooked turkey legs)
1 tsp. ground cumin
Salt/pepper to taste

Saute shallot, pepper, and squash in olive oil until squash is just tender, stir in cumin and diced smoked turkey. Salt (if needed, depending on saltiness of turkey) and pepper to taste. Keep warm while making griddle cakes or refrigerate if making ahead.

Lentil griddle cakes
1 cup Pancake batter (I made my own using 2/3 c. flour, 1 egg, 1 tsp. olive oil, and 1/2 tsp. baking powder mixed with 2% milk to a thin batter, but you can use a mix)
½ c. lightly mashed cooked lentils
Mix, let rest for 1 minute.
Cook on lightly oiled griddle until lightly browned on both sides.

Cilantro Crème Fraiche
While griddle cakes cook, mix a heaping tablespoon crème fraiche with 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice and 1 tbsp. minced cilantro.

Re-heat hash if made ahead.
To serve:
Place griddle cake on plate, spoon crème fraiche over and pile hash on top. Garnish with more crème fraiche and sprigs of cilantro.

YUMMY!

Ice Cream Adventures

2008-11-11T13:15:00.001-08:00

I've been obsessing over homemade ice cream for a while now. I've tried a lot of experiments with different ingredients trying to get good mouth feel with less fat. I've found that maltodextrin helps, and always add it when I make a mix from just milk or milk and 1/2 and 1/2. Still, it doesn't compare to full fat. My latest two favorites are French vanilla bean and Coconut-Black Sesame.

French Vanilla Bean
1 vanilla bean (split, seeds scraped)
2 c. heavy cream
2 c. 1/2 and 1/2
1 c. granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean
pinch of salt
4 egg yolks (antibiotic free hens, or use pasteurized egg)

Whisk together all ingredients. Taste and add more salt if needed to bring out flavor. Refrigerate for 4 hours. Strain and churn in ice cream maker.

Cocomut-Black Sesame
1 can coconut milk
2 c. 1/2 and 1/2
3/4 c. granulated sugar
pinch of salt
Black sesame seeds (I use about 1/4 cup but you may want to use less)

Whisk together all ingredients except sesame seeds. Taste and increase salt if needed to bring out flavor. Cover and refrigerate miniumum 4 hours. Churn in ice cream maker, adding sesame seeds to your preference during last few minutes.

Awesome!

Paper Chef #31

2008-07-07T19:49:00.000-07:00

For a long time I've wanted to do an Iron Chef-type challenge, and recently discovered Paper Chef. This is my first entry, but I didn't get it done in time to submit. It was fun to try the challenge anyway, and I was surprised how tasty it was. The challenge ingredients were chick peas, oregano, walnuts, and fish steak. I used salmon, but took it off the bone and pan seared it with a little bit of salt in light olive oil. I wanted to finish the dish with sea salt, so didn't use much seasoning.

I've always thought of chick peas as a Middle Eastern ingredient, but I wanted to try using them in a different way. I used 12 oz. low-sodium canned cooked, rinsed, and drained chick peas. I'm growing herbs in pots on my patio, and had some nice Greek oregano, which is kind of spicy and lemony, so I thought a spicy lemon dressing would be good with the peas and the salmon. I picked some onion chives, the oregano, flat parsley, and cilantro. I toasted the walnuts lightly, and chopped everything. The chick peas went into the food processor with the chopped herbs, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 tsp. chili de arbol, 1/4 tsp white pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt. I added 1/3 cup of the chopped toasted walnuts and folded them in. Then I squeezed in the juice of one small lemon and 2 tablespoons of walnut oil. After tasting, I adjusted the seasonings (including adding a bit more oil), and plated with the salmon and some halved cherry tomatoes. I finished with a sprinkling of grey sea salt and extra chopped herbs. It was delish!

My first blog

2008-06-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

After reading a lot of food blogs, I decided that it's time for me to create my own. I'll start by saying I remodeled my kitchen a short time ago and it has rekindled my interest in kitchen experiments. I'm a bit of a gadget junkie, so I went out and bought a lot of new small appliances/cookware, and have been having fun playing with them. About a year ago I started making homemade ice cream/sorbet, and 10 pounds later I've got quite a collection of recipes, which I'll post here off and on. My latest adventures involve a new pressure cooker and a stove-top smoker, which I haven't tried yet.

There are gorgeous fresh fava beans in the local markets right now, so my first experiment to share is fava bean spread. I use it as a spread or dip.

1 1/2 cups shelled fava beans
5 or 6 mint leaves (if desired)
1/4-1/2 cup baby arugula leaves
3 or 4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 large or 4 small cloves garlic, minced (more if you want a garlicky spread)
1 tbsp. or more fresh lemon juice
salt/pepper/minced flat leaf parsley (to taste)
1/4 - 1/2 cup fruity olive oil

Boil the fava beans for 4-5 minutes. Drain, plunge in cold water, remove outer skins.
Put in a food processor with mint (if desired), arugula (if your arugula is really spicy, use less), garlic, leaves from thyme, and lemon juice. Pulse a couple of times, then with processor running, drizzle in part of the oil until a thick spread forms. Taste and adjust acidity with more lemon juice if needed, add more arugula if desired, and season with salt and pepper and minced parsley to taste. Drizzle in more oil until the smooth and spreadable. Remember, this is an experiment, so you'll have to adjust the ingredients to your taste. I like more garlic, less parsley and less mint.

To be really decadent, you omit the mint and drizzle a bit of white truffle oil over the spread when serving.

Enjoy!