Sort of Moroccan, with a Southern twist: a whole chicken slowly stewed with lemons, olives, cumin, ras el hanout, onion, celery, carrot, sweet potatoes and herbs until it was falling-apart tender, then all solids removed to bowl & board while the liquid thickened with some flour to make a fantastic gravy. Meanwhile baby spinach wilted with garlic and more lemon, and gave a nice tangy counterpoint to the rich sauce. A Pleiades XIV couldn’t have…
cookblog Posts
Noah and Deanna came up for a night, so we had crispy tofu in a pungent peanut sauce (PB, sesame oil, vinegar, lime, umeboshi paste) as well as faux BBQ tempeh (molasses, ketchup, tamarind, vinegars, hot sauce) rice, roasted kabocha, and the last of the red cabbage from rib night. We drank a 2003 Turley Keig vineyard zin and a 2003 Siduri 2003 Sonatera vineyard pinot noir.
Cooked slow, until they fell off the bone, with onion, celery root, carrot, riesling, cumin, shiitakes, garlic and herbs, and served over quinoa. Chris made an amazing salad from their garden, and cooked Richard and Susan’s black radishes in sake and soy until they were perfectly tender. We started by finishing the riesling, then had a 2002 Marquis Philips cabernet S2.
The paella rice (after having been made into maki for lunch the next day) now became supplì, or arancini, with bacon and mozzarella inside and corn meal outside since we had no bread crumbs. A very simple tomato sauce, salad, and Susana Balbo’s Syrah/Bonardo blend. Comfort food for the fall.
For the second night of their stay we made paella. 5 kinds of sausage from Fleisher’s (one each of what they had) plus scallops and clams, plus chicken legs, all in arborio rice with saffron and a broth made from earlier chicken bones and carrots, celery root, onion, and parsley. I browned the chicken, sausage, and scallops in the same pan, using their rendered fat, then threw in the onion and rice to start the…
Jody and Anna came to visit, and they had requested the ribs we made last time in Brooklyn. So we had them, and red cabbage kraut, and mashed roasted butternut squash, and roasted blue potatoes with garlic. We drank three different 2002s from Thackrey: an Andromeda, an Aquila, and a Sirius. Surprisingly enough (although maybe not, given their youth) the Andromeda, which is the least pinot noir-tasting pinot noir I’ve ever had, won for its…
The green soup became little pancakes with the addition of a couple of eggs and some flour, and half a red cabbage simmmered in spices and wine until nice and soft. Combined, they were sort of like blinis and kraut- a strange homage to my Eastern European ancestors. Finished with a yogurt sauce in place of sour cream, they satisfied pretty well that autumnal craving for hearty food, as well as the need for simple,…
Tofu, cauliflower, sweet potato, and peas simmered in a sauce of coconut milk, tomato juice, water, lime juice, green curry paste, two curry powders, and a dab of vindaloo paste as well. It simmered until all the veggies were super tender and the liquid had thickened to a good sauce. I made a side of spinach wilted in hot oil with mustard and fenugreek seeds, with yogurt added at the end. Rich, hearty, and completely…
This is a tad out of order, but whatever. I put the meat into the marinade after the dinner party and cooked it low on the stove all night. Come morning (about 10 hours later) I separated all the bone and fat from the meat, and strained the liquid, then skimmed it. All the meat, pulled apart into strands, went back in half the liquid (the other half waits in the freezer) and reduced along…
Seeking once angain to consildate leftovers, I took the daikon I had steamed upon return from the road trip and added it to some wild Alaskan salmon along with some of Chris’ burdock, the rest of the pumpkin filling and their parsley pesto. I also took the mustard greens from Richard and Susan and sautéed them with garlic. Hearty, earthy, and pretty clean. We opened a 2002 Jadot Beaune “Bressandes” to keep the Burgundy theme…