Leave Your Message After The Beep

I spent most of the day preparing for Thursday. In no particular order, I trimmed a deboned lamb neck, seasoned it with ras-el-hanout, sprinkled it with activa, rolled it up, gave the outside a good rub with a sage-rosemary-garlic paste, and vacuum-sealed it to set it in a nice torchon. I made a chanterelle-apricot sauce with cream for the lamb. I made chicken broth from last night’s carcass. I made the custard for the barely-sweetened dark chocolate-espresso ice cream. I made savory walnut marshmallows, adapted from the El Bulli cookbook. I brined a hunk of pork belly, and cooked the pork terrine with pistachios and calvados-cider soaked figs in the water bath for four hours at 66˚ C.

There was probably some other stuff too. It’s particularly funny because I’m still not sure what I’m making. I’m tired. I made osso buco for dinner, on brown rice, with steamed yellow cauliflower, the mustard-heavy green mash left from yesterday, and a wonderful jus made from the braising liquid reduced with some beef demi-glace. We had a 1999 Ciacci Brunello. Milo, ecstatic, ate all of our marrow. It was good. I’m going to bed.

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6 Comments

  1. Heather
    November 26, 2008

    Isn’t activa that yogurt that wimminfolk eat to stay regular?

    ‘Mishly’ is my word of the day.

    Tomorrow is A Game, day 1.

  2. cook eat FRET
    November 26, 2008

    zero cooking for me this year
    boarding a plane
    mom phones in it
    i’m not all that traditional about THE DAY.
    i just wanna be with family and be thankful

    but still as always – your food sounds stellar. and i wish your food was my food.

  3. Zoomie
    November 26, 2008

    I’m listening to “The Phantom Tollbooth” – unabridge, on tape – and it’s just as good as the first time I read it! Happy Thanksgiving to you, your lovely wife and, of course, Milo.

  4. Jen of A2eatwrite
    November 26, 2008

    Did you name Milo after that Milo? That was my favorite book growing up. C wrote Norton Juster after reading it, he loved it so much.

    I’m in the same boat as you – know what I’m going to cook, though. I think. We’re going to be a small crowd so it will all be fine. I’ve got a tangle of beef stew on the stove currently and have a blessed half hour with no one in the house.

    Yay.

  5. The Spiteful Chef
    November 26, 2008

    I have a house full of peeps, (crazy little marshmallow chicks), so I’ve got a big ‘ol T-day planned. No marrow, my sister’s a veggie.

  6. peter
    November 26, 2008

    Blanche: Yes. Yes, it is.

    Claudia: Nice picture. Have a great trip.

    Zoomie: Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. It’s a great book.

    Jen: After he was born, none of the names on our list fit him at all. After a couple of days, we came up with Milo separately, due in part to our love of that book when we were young.

    Kristie: I hope you spend the entire meal riding and deriding her until there’s a long, awkward silence, followed by lots of tears.
    Extra credit for broken plates and glasses.

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