Rick and Julie (and little Holden) are staying for a couple of nights, so we celebrated in fine style. First, more soup, from more or less the same mixture of vegetables as before. We opened a 1998 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne to go with this, and with the next course, little flans of smoked trout. They were actually halfway between flans and souflées, since they puffed up a fair amount. With these went a marinated…
Category: Uncategorized
Sometimes you just need to go back to the archetypes of comfort food- the touchstones of taste- because you’re tired and the seasons are changing, and darn it, there’s a pound of bork (beef and pork) from Fleisher’s in the fridge. Thus did the following become dinner: spaghetti with a slow-cooked meat sauce involving tomato paste, onion, herbs, garlic, wine and several hours. On the side, fresh arugula tossed with the leftover chard and radicchio…
Chris and Sirkka came over with an amazing basket of treats from their garden: and we made them into a great dinner. Micro was also in town, luckily, and it was a perfect evening. First, the rest of the puréed soup from before, enhanced with a bit of truffle oil and wild mint from the meadow. Next, seared sashimi of marlin, marinated with umeboshi paste, miso, and honey, which I threw in the pan after…
Kale pesto has become the go-to way for getting copious greens into Milo; he loves it on pasta (and cauliflower,) and he also loved the two ways we had it: on pizza with goat cheese and in a puréed soup that included more cauliflower, carrot, celery root, onion, and parsley. We had all this green goodness with a 2003 d’Arenberg “Laughing Magpie” shiraz/viognier which, though not as friendly as the 2002, is a mighty wine…
Needing something clean and healthy, I fell back on maki, always a good way to use up small amounts of leftovers in a healthy way. So the remaining brown rice became rolls around two different fillings: the first, roasted carnival squash puréed with a bit of umeboshi paste and shaken with sesame seeds, and the second kale pesto with fresh arugula leaves in the middle. As an appetizer, 2/3 of a block of tofu browned…
I was talking to the plumber and discussing variations in sauce recipes from family to family; once he left I knew what needed making for dinner. So a bit of bacon and half an onion browned, then a ton of fresh herbs, garlic, a splash of wine, and a can of tomatoes all simmered while I heated up a big pot of water for pasta. The fettucine tossed in with the sauce just before it…
Roasted butternut squash, stick-blended into the rest of the smoked duck broth, became the first course in another fridge-clearing dinner. The caramelized squash and the smoky broth combined beautifully, and the natural affinity duck has with sweet vegetables really made this one special. The main course was brown rice, pinto beans cooked with onion, cumin, lemon, chile powder, and the smoked fat from the top of the broth, and a salsa of corn, radish, and…
Still more rain, this time with the closest and loudest lightning I’ve ever heard (it blew all our surge suppressors and killed the phone) wanted another comfort-centric response, so I schlepped to the store after I thought it broke and got thoroughly soaked on the way home, to the point where a stranger gave me a ride, seeing that my feeble paper bags were about to dump dinner all over the sidewalk. The joys of…
This time the broth was all duck; the whole glorious smoked carcass along with an onion, carrots, and parsley simmered for a couple of hours. Then, once strained, more carrot and zucchini plus soy sauce went in to simmer while whole wheat spaghetti boiled since we were out of soba. Finished with scallions and cilantro, and had with a 2002 Jadot Beaune Les Bressandes, it proved another antidote to what seems like eternal rain.
All the other night’s ingredients (except the fish, which was gone) went back in the pan after a bit of onion had browned up a bit and then had some scallion and cilantro added to make a beautiful curried fried rice. This time a Trimbach riesling, also 2003 went with it. A nice way to enjoy a variation with subtle differences.