What's Cooking (Take Two!)

[Robin Garr]

brocpesto.jpg

I had some broccoli last night that needed to be eaten, but wasn't in the mood for traditional florets. Suddenly a light bulb went off: Why not use broccoli as the base for a pesto?

Good idea. It turned out easy and delicious. Basically, I just cut up a broccoli tree, including most of the stem, simmered it briefly in salted water until just getting tender but still bright green (6 min?), then processed it with a generous batch of minced garlic briefly simmered in olive oil. Processed in 1/2 cup walnuts, 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, 1/2 tbsp organic butter, and S&P. I used a little more olive oil and a little reserved broccoli water to get the right texture, then at serving time stirred in a little pasta water from the fettuccine to loosen it up. Sprinkled with a little black pepper and a little fennel pollen just because I could; served and ate.

[Jenise]

Robin, love the idea, but my first reaction to your picture is: there aren't enough noodles!

[Jenise]

Having winemaker Barnaby Tuttle (Teutonic Wines, Oregon) to dinner tonight. Am going to do a kitchen counter meal where Bob and our three guests sit on the counter side of my prep station while I serve a series of courses (and dine) on the other side. Will be a tasting earlier so everything has to be pretty a la minute. Am going to serve the peach gazpacho I have leftover from the night, an asparagus on chevre on puff pastry cold course, a butter lettuce/chive/egg salad, and rack of lamb on roasted cauliflower in lemon-parm béchamel.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, love the idea, but my first reaction to your picture is: there aren't enough noodles!

That's not a family bowl, though, just a single serving. For us, that's 2 ounces dried pasta each. Calories and carbs!

Robin, love the idea, but my first reaction to your picture is: there aren't enough noodles!

That's not a family bowl, though, just a single serving. For us, that's 2 ounces dried pasta each. Calories and carbs!

Pumpkin also believes in 2 oz pasta per serving. Seems a little slim to me but I'm a glutton for pasta.

[Jenise]

Robin, love the idea, but my first reaction to your picture is: there aren't enough noodles!

That's not a family bowl, though, just a single serving. For us, that's 2 ounces dried pasta each. Calories and carbs!

Pumpkin also believes in 2 oz pasta per serving. Seems a little slim to me but I'm a glutton for pasta.

Ditto. Four ounces or I'll claw someone's eyes out.

[Robin Garr]

Ditto. Four ounces or I'll claw someone's eyes out.

I could eat that. But I just can't. That's 400 calories right there, mostly carbs, before you even talk about sauce, salad, wine. I love being a professional eater, but to do it prudently I've got to watch portion control and exercise. All in moderation, but it takes that much effort to keep from crossing the line from "gently padded" to obesely overweight. If you can do it, I'm glad for you, but I can't.

Robin, I assume that you meant 400 calories.

I will be having pasta tonight, in the form of Beijing meat sauce noodles.

-Paul W.

Paella night here.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, I assume that you meant 400 calories.

Yep. Check the time stamp. Morning, pre-coffee.

We had our friends Patricia and David over tonight for a small plate meal. We started with Patricia's mushroom mousse that was served with strips of grilled portabellas, balsamic reduction, and a pear-ginger compote. They paired that with a Heitz Angelica that's been sitting in their cellar for somewhere around twenty years and was fantastic. I followed that with a salad of spinach and persimmons tossed with a pomegranate vinaigrette and topped with warm goat cheese rolled in walnuts. Next course was Patricia's butter poached halibut with chive oil and arugula. Then it was tacos made with lamb shanks braised in coffee with ancho chile powder (a David Levovitz recipe). I pulled the meat off of the braised shanks, warmed it in a reduction of the braising liquid, and served it with corn tortillas, persimmon pico de gallo, and limes. Dessert was chocolate pots de creme (Patricia's) and butterscotch pudding and mint meringues (my wife's). Patricia put the pots de cremes in teacups and served a few little chocolate buttons alongside of them. These little buttons were chocolate covering something that was chewy and had a vague fruity flavor to it. I guessed cherry, my wife guessed cranberry. Turns out the that when Patricia was making the balsamic reduction for her first course, she got distracted and over-reduced the vinegar on her first try. She ended up with what she described as "balsamic tar". She tasted it and it struck her as something that would go well with chocolate, so she scraped it out of the pot and made the little chocolate confections with it. It worked really well.

Other wines included a 2004 Peter Lehmann Riesling (beautiful dry petroly rieslingness) and a "cru classe" Cotes de Provence. All were delicions.

[Jenise]

Nice dinner, Mike!

Tonight Bob asked for roast chicken. So I bought a fresh organic chicken today, cut it in half, and then soaked both halves in water/dry white vermouth/salt/fresh rosemary and thyme for about four hours. Afterward, one went in the oven to roast to a crisp golden brown and the other went into the freezer for another time. The result was so juice and flavorful that I have to again express puzzlement at the brine haters amongst us.

I served that with a rice pilaf seasoned with dill and poppy seeds--Frank's fault!--and preceded it with a warm first course salad of sautéed red cabbage with caraway seeds.

[Jenise]

Tonight: burgers! Just hungry for one, even though on Monday's we typically go meatless.

Tonight we grilled a rib eye steak over charcoal and mesquite chips and enjoyed it with sliced tomato and eggplant salad. We washed it down with Gritty McDuff's Maine's Best IPA.

[Jenise]

Last night I was going to roast a small prime rib but neighbors invited us over and so we had a delicious Canadian pea soup (yellow peas, not green) instead. Prime rib's on for tonight, with mashed horse radish potatoes and a romaine salad with crumbled blue cheese.

[Jenise]

Yesterday I had: two prime rib bones, a small amount of jus from the prime rib, a small vat of tomatoes too soft/old to use in salads that I'd cooked with onions earlier in the week, some tomato paste I'd cooked with wine, garlic and herbs for a pizza base, and about 1/3 lb of ground beef I'd quickly pan fried and crumbled after cooking the rest of the approximately l lb pkg into 2 hamburger patties I cooked on Thursday.

So I put all of that in a pan with more onions and garlic and ended up with as delightful panful of a rich red Sunday gravy type of sauce, very different from what I usually make for pasta and quite excellent. Served that scooped over some al dente 'tracks' pasta tossed with truffle oil and garlic. With a good barolo on the side? YUM.

Over the weekend I made zi ran yang rou (Xinjiang cumin lamb) and khao suey (Burmese curried noodle soup).

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, I love the way you eat.

Yesterday I spent the day working on various projects and suddenly it was 5:30, time for the game, and I'd really given dinner no thought. I hadn't even made lunch, so we were HUNGRY. A quick check of the refrigerator found half a head of romaine and three chayote squash that I'd had for several weeks and were starting to spot. So I grabbed four crab cakes out of the freezer and started those browning in a skillet and turned the romaine into a chiffonade for a light oil-vin-garlic dressing, and served that as a starter course to take care of hunger, and only after we finished that did I start preparing for a vegetarian dinner of curry-and-porcini mushroom flavored rice topped with pan-fried chayote squash finished with lemon juice and sweet/mild julienned jalapeno peppers.

Delish. Chayote is one of those vegetables that I adore but never encounter at restaurants or other people's homes. Does anyone else here love it?

I'm not sure that I've ever eaten it.

I have bought chayote a few times -- they always seem to have it at the Mexican market. It strikes me as rather bland and neutral in flavor -- not that much different from, say, a "patty pan" squash (the ones shaped kind of like a white flower). So I like it OK but I don't seek it out. The weird shape and surface texture are the most interesting thing about it.

[Jenise]

I have bought chayote a few times -- they always seem to have it at the Mexican market. It strikes me as rather bland and neutral in flavor -- not that much different from, say, a "patty pan" squash (the ones shaped kind of like a white flower). So I like it OK but I don't seek it out. The weird shape and surface texture are the most interesting thing about it.

Interesting. I see where you're going on flavor, but that chayote is sweeter and texturally much firmer. They don't come apart, and the blandness is an excellent blank canvas. And they're fantastic seasoned with lemon juice just before pulling them out of the pan--it integrates and becomes a bright through-flavor immediately--were that not so they wouldn't make the satisfying meat protein substitute mine were the other night. They would actually become part of a middle east meal like the one you are threading about below quite beautifully. I understand that in Louisiana, they're stuffed and baked. Keep meaning to look for a recipe and try that but I never seem to get around to it.

[Jenise]

I'm having a dinner party for 14 tomorrow night, a working dinner meeting so I started cooking last night for that. I turned two pounds of ground turkey, one pound of ground pork, a lot of garlic and some bread crumbs into a pile of about 40 2" meatballs that I baked off then simmered with tomato, onion, cinnamon and bay leaf. At the same time, I poached off six chicken thighs for a future empanada stuffing and coated the two remaining thighs with Lawry's seasoned salt and flour, then put them on a cookie sheet with one large potato cut into one inch thick chunks and a pile of 3" lengths of celery stalk. It was a very efficient meal because it was ready to go in the oven in less than five minutes and it roasted hands-free while I worked on other things. By the time the potatoes got crisp, the chicken and celery were too and dinner was ready.

I see where you're going on flavor, but that chayote is sweeter and texturally much firmer. They don't come apart, and the blandness is an excellent blank canvas. And they're fantastic seasoned with lemon juice just before pulling them out of the pan--it integrates and becomes a bright through-flavor immediately--were that not so they wouldn't make the satisfying meat protein substitute mine were the other night.

OK, so, help me a little more: If I buy a chayote, I can cut it in thick tranches and sizzle it in a pan? Is there a skin or rind? Are there seeds and tougher flesh around them?

[Jenise]

I see where you're going on flavor, but that chayote is sweeter and texturally much firmer. They don't come apart, and the blandness is an excellent blank canvas. And they're fantastic seasoned with lemon juice just before pulling them out of the pan--it integrates and becomes a bright through-flavor immediately--were that not so they wouldn't make the satisfying meat protein substitute mine were the other night.

OK, so, help me a little more: If I buy a chayote, I can cut it in thick tranches and sizzle it in a pan? Is there a skin or rind? Are there seeds and tougher flesh around them?

There's a single narrow slit of a soft seed in the center. Cut in half. Then cut each half into thirds lengthwise. Either peel with a carrot peeler first, or now use a paring knife to peel each third section and cut out the long skinny piece of soft seed. I have always peeled them, but I found myself the other night if that peel isn't entirely edible. Seems like it would be; it's not tough or fibrous. I just peel them because my mother always did! Anyway, what you have now will cook beautifully in a skillet. Add to melted butter, cover, cook for about 6-7 minutes, then remove lid, raise heat, brown them off, then season with lemon juice and salt. Voila--delicious.