About 14 years ago my Mom took me scuba diving in Belize. The national dish there- as I remember it- is rice and beans cooked in coconut milk, garnished with onions and habañero peppers pickled in vinegar. It’s a great combination; the rice and beans are rich, creamy, and thick, and the pickles are crunchy, sharp, and fiercely hot. Since we still have an excess of habañeros, I made 2 quarts of the hot onion…
Category: Wine
For tonight’s dinner the pork shoulder steak I bought at the farmers’ market yesterday gave me something to focus on, and I had it pretty well figured out by dinner time; a few last details inspired by fridge and garden rounded it out into an excellent season-spanning meal. I brined the meat in kimchi juice, then cooked it sous-vide at 65˚ C for two hours. Meanwhile, I took a jar of the most recent kimchi,…
I’m still in the city, and it’s OK, but I miss family and garden with increasing intensity each day. The other night I was invited to Kris and Ken’s place for dinner, and Mary came straight from the airport to join us; she’s back from France to gather her stuff before moving back there for good. Kris made a simple yet elegant dinner, and we had superlative wines to accompany each course. First, his crab…
We were in Vermont for the long weekend, and I’ll get that post together soon. In the meantime, a dinner Milo and I had last week that was remarkable only for the incredible tomatoes we used throughout. To start, two kinds of heirlooms dressed only with Maldon salt and good olive oil. Perfection. Then, penne tossed with sautéed guanciale (just because it’s not dry yet doesn’t mean I can’t start using it) plus a highlight…
Yesterday was the guys’ last day in the studio working on the second of their three Radiolarian records, so I brought some snacks by around dinner time to help get them across the finish line. I had an idea the other day for a Thai curry custard- kind of a cross between a chawan-mushi and a pôt-de-crème. So I took some coconut milk and chicken broth, simmered them with green curry paste, Thai and lime…
Coconut curry is one of our go-to mindless meals; it’s healthy, delicious, infinitely malleable, and suited to weather of all seasons. This time of year, all I have to do is push my metaphorical shopping cart through the garden and toss in everything that looks good. Today’s specials were carrots, red and green onions, zucchini, beans, tomatoes, Thai and lime basil, cilantro sprouts, and nasturtium leaves. With the addition of half a can of coconut…
John came over on his one free night before the touring begins again; it’s always a treat to have some real time with him since he’s so busy and we usually get together in bigger groups for dinner parties. I didn’t have a lot of time to put together anything fancy, but this time of year the ingredients are so great that they really just need to be arranged on a plate. We began with…
In the cooler weather, I’ve been craving homemade bread, but as a lead-in pizza crust did the trick. To give it some extra zing, I thought to grill it in order to avoid heating the house up with a 500˚ oven. We made two: a Margherita, and a zucchini, onion, tomato, olive, and herb. the olives came from elsewhere. We grew the rest, and the flour and cheese were local. Our tomatoes are peaking, so…
I am so happy to be back, and just working in the studio until it’s time to make dinner, with an occasional break to garden a bit so the perfection of these days doesn’t pass me by. Right before starting this meal, I finished a drawing that looks like wallpaper that William Morris would have designed if he’d had access to certain indole alkaloids. We eat a lot of salmon; it’s delicious, healthy, and most…
Chioggia beets occasionally lack any of the brilliant pigment that gives them their gorgeous candy-striping; the result is a pure white beet. One of the shades of rainbow carrot we planted is also a beautiful, creamy white, and since I had planned to make carrot risotto- oh, smoked duck broth in the freezer, how I love thee- combining the white roots with the white rice seemed like a neat idea. I roasted the roots with…