It got humid, and I was in the woodshop all day so something light and quick was called for. The leftover brown rice (we always make too much, so there are easy options in the following days) and some wilted watercress became maki, and carrot “noodles” from the peeler tossed in a sauce of cider vinegar, tamari, mustard, and sesame oil with a garnish of black sesame seeds. A bit of ground beef mixed with…
cookblog Posts
The rib bones from yesterday, still with a bit of meat on them- and lots of flavor left to give- went in a pot with onion, carrot and herbs to brown a bit. Then a bowl of soaked cannelini beans, water, and a bit of salt, and it all bubbled for two hours. I pulled all the good meat off, chucked the rest, and stirred in a handful of chopped oregano from the herb garden.…
This tantalizing triskelion is made up of espresso-rubbed, homemade sauce-basted, and apple wood from our tree-smoked pork ribs cut apart and arranged over mashed sweet potatoes and the yams from the night before and garnished with the pineapple salsa. For Mothers’ day, we opened one of Christine’s favorites: a 2001 Carver Sutro petite sirah, which is finally coming into its own as a rich, gorgeous wine. Next time I want to try it along with…
It was a perfect day, and they had Marlin at the market, so I made a version of the way I had done it in Costa Rica a couple of years ago. First, a pineapple salsa, with jalapeño, lime, scallion, cilantro, and salt, which sat and marinated while I did the rest. A light rub of cinnamon, chile, and pepper on the fish, and Japanese yams went into the steamer. When the yams were done,…
Here, finally planted (except for two beds of hot-weather things) is the garden. In a couple of weeks we’ll be getting the first mesclun, and after that many other things. It was a ton of work, but now that the beds are done they should be pretty easy to prepare in subsequent springs.
Seriously muggy and hot today, with afternoon thundershowers giving us our first rain in a full week. Nice to give the sprinkler a break, especially since I was doing some space-mandated editing in the garden; rhubarb came out of a bed and into the ground near the fence, carrots got reduced to make room for salsify, burdock, scorzonera and parsnip, and tomorrow the celery/celeriac gets cut in half to make room for daikon and radish.…
Liz invited a few people over for a dinner and bonfire. Everyone brought something, and we grilled many veggies- eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms, radicchio, onions, asparagus- plus fish and chicken. Phillipe made a crazy leek salad, Sirkka made roasted potatoes, John made salad and brought an intense daikon and ikura relish, and Chris manned the grill while I dealt with squid and tuna; a pesto/umeboshi/lime mixture went in & outside the squid, then they cooked over…
I rubbed and roasted a whole chicken, and threw a bunch of sweet potatoes into the oven as well, with lots of garlic and thyme. Crimini mushrooms, sautéed with garlic and deglazed with white wine, went into the blender with the burdock from a couple of days before plus just enough water to spin into a thick purée. Once the bird came out, I made a roux with the fat in the roasting pan and…
This time at Rick and Julie’s house, where they’ve been playing with sous-vide cooking, using a vacuum sealer and a hot water bath to slow-cook meat and fish so that they’re perfect all the way through. In this case, New York strips that he had dry-aged for a month in a special fridge, then cooked at 128˚ for 4 hours, each in its own bag, then seared up in a pan to put a good…
We went to visit Jeff, Eve, and their two boys for an early dinner on a beautiful day. It was at their house during grad school that the tradition of epic dinners really embedded itself in my psyche as an essential component of life. Good ingredients, improvisation, and great people all combined to make some meals that I’ll never forget. Jeff had made his trademark grilled squid, and pan-roasted salmon in a sauce of puréed…