SobaAddict70

Cookbook Wonderland (a/k/a Kitchen Arts & Letters) came through for me. The Spain volume is my all-time fave, and it's something I've been looking for a long time.

You could always try cooking it low and slow for an hour, in oil. I have made this before, several times. While the bitterness doesn't really ever fully fade away, it does diminish somewhat. http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Cime-di-Rapa-Fritte (I recommend using a fraction of garlic called for in the recipe; it will still be delicious without.)

Crudités plate -- French breakfast radishes, asparagus, hard-cooked farm egg w/anchovy. The mayonnaise is leftover herb mayonnaise from the oeufs mayo. The aioli plate (pages 145-147) calls for a garlic aioli, which this is not. That being said, I'll be making it again when my partner comes to town because it's an excuse to eat anchovies again. We're both anchovy freaks. I've never had eggs paired with anchovy in this manner, and I have to say, I like the idea very much.

Because that's what the recipe calls for. As for how, you'll have to buy the book.

I haven't read this article yet (it's going to be a really busy day today), but I thought that a lot of you might enjoy this: http://madfeed.co/post/78754154929/the-future-of-food-criticism A sample quote: There's a podcast embedded in the article in case you want to listen to the symposium. About 1 hour and 50 minutes of your time.

Pan-seared asparagus salad, with baby mesclun and fried farm egg Adapted from: http://goo.gl/Nq9lvS I probably added the mesclun a touch too early since it's a little bit wilted. Tasted great though. I omitted the garlic/anchovy paste in the recipe, instead opting for shallots in the vinaigrette and shallots in the pan along with the asparagus spears. Fettucine with morel mushrooms, crimini mushrooms and radish greens Littleneck clams with heirloom potatoes and ramps Clams: steamed with white wine and water; meat removed and shells discarded; clam juices and broth reserved Potatoes: peeled, cut into chunks, then seasoned with sea salt, black pepper and olive oil; roasted at 350 F for 30 minutes. Ramps: fried in unsalted butter, to which were added the clams and potatoes. sea salt and black pepper to taste, and some reserved clam broth. snipped chives for garnish.

Insalata caprese is tomatoes, basil, mozzarella. 3 things. 4 if you count the dressing -- olive oil, salt, pepper, a splash of vinegar. Some recipes don't even bother with the vinegar. I think with "salad", it can mean whatever you want it to mean.

I call it an everything but the kitchen sink salad because that's what salads of that type are to me. I prefer minimalist styles whenever possible; you taste more with less. Your mileage may vary.

My style of cooking tends to be "vegetable-focused", so vegetables and/or fruit will figure in some way, depending on whatever it is I'm making. Vegetables are usually raw, but sometimes there are combinations of raw and cooked components, one of tonight's appetizers being a prime example. I have a looser definition of what constitutes a salad which is the definition found on Wikipedia. I like to pull from various traditions whenever I make a salad, but I suppose if I had a favorite style, it would be in the Italian manner: 3-4 ingredients that go together, with a dressing. The dressing is usually wine, wine vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, pepper. It's not complicated; free and easy are the phrases of the moment. I almost never eat salads that throw everything and the kitchen sink together at home; it's the style popularized by office worker drones in cubicles across corporate America. The sandwich shop at my job says it's their biggest seller: one tub of greens (spinach, arugula, mixed mesclun, romaine), followed by one protein (tuna, chicken of whatever form you'd like to invent, egg, tofu, fish) and a variety of raw/cooked toppings, drenched by a dressing of some kind and tossed together or "chopped". It's fine for a work lunch but not something I typically eat outside of an office environment. Making salad is a relaxing endeavor. For a leafy green salad -- You wash the greens in the sink, then spin or dry them, then assemble them in a bowl along with your other ingredients. Then you whisk together your dressing, tasting as you go, until you've reached the desired consistency. It's important that a salad be dressed properly; the greens should glisten with a fine sheen; they should taste of the dressing but not be completely immersed in it. I cannot abide salad that's drowning in a vinaigrette. I think salad should be its own course, so you can properly appreciate it in the context of a meal.

Everything looks great, especially the ham. Simple dinner tonight... Crudités plate -- French breakfast radishes, asparagus, hard-cooked farm egg w/ anchovy, herb mayonnaise Poached wild sea bass, lemon butter sauce, side salad

Basil is available at my supermarkets, like out-of-season tomatoes, but I prefer to limit myself to seasonal ingredients from my farmers' market. I view that as more of a "summer" herb, and so act accordingly. Your mileage may vary. For the pistou, the ramps would be subbed for the basil and I'd omit the garlic. *shrug*

I've got a lot of leftovers this week, so it'll be a while before I make anything new from the book. Tomorrow's menu and Tuesday's are going to be decidedly NOT LAMB, however. My boyfriend arrives in town next week and will be staying with me for quite a while. He's a Francophile, so I have a few ideas in store such as the sardine rillettes, the aioli plate, salade lyonnaise and soupe au pistou (but with ramps subbing in for the basil). In the meantime, I'm hoping some folks will take a stab at the book and post. I'm looking forward to reading more.

Spaghetti with broccoli rabe and bottarga

It's actually not that sweet. The tart dough is your basic pâte brisée recipe; the apple filling just thinly sliced apples sprinkled with some vanilla sugar and glazed with apple-flavored simple syrup once the tart was finished baking.

Plain apple tart, vanilla ice cream Not the usual thing one might have for lunch, but it's satisfying -- particularly since I'm not a baker. I thought the dough came together beautifully, and that was a minor victory in and of itself. Recipe: pages 48-49 from http://www.amazon.com/A-Platter-Figs-Other-Recipes/dp/1579653464

Fava greens and ramps, with anchovy and currants Fava greens are the leaves of a fava bean plant. They have a faintly sweetish taste, somewhat of a cross between fava beans and spinach. Ramps are also known as wild leeks. This is a Sicilian treatment, with the ramps substituted for garlic and onion. Creamy scrambled eggs, morel mushrooms, chermoula.

Bread, butter, radishes, herb mayonnaise, salt The mayonnaise is the same as that served for the oeufs mayo from a few days ago. Mesclun and herb salad -- baby mesclun, edible flowers, sorrel leaves, parsley leaves, mint leaves, tarragon leaves, oregano leaves, stonecrop leaves, shaved Appalachian cheese, extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt, lemon juice and black pepper. Spaghetti with ramps, ramp pesto and breadcrumbs

If you want ramps, you'll want to get there early. Like 11 am early. Any later and they'll be sold out. It's early in the season; so only one vendor (Mountain Sweet Berry) had them today. I expect that two weeks from now, there'll be a profusion particularly if the weather holds up. Once that happens, you can show up at 1 pm and there might still be some available.

Here's a size comparison between a bunch and a cookbook I recently bought. IIRC the bunches from Eataly aren't as "packed" as the ones from USGM. You get more ramp for your bucks from the Greenmarket, in my opinion. Smellier too.

The bunches in the photo are what I bought. One of the differences between Eataly and the ones at USGM is that I know the provenance of those at the Greenmarket, which is upstate New York where Mountain Sweet Berry is located. Stuff at Eataly can be halfway across the continent and you'd be none the wiser. I'd rather that my food $$$ goes toward supporting local products if I have a choice.

from USGM: today: RAMPS!!!, clams, herbs, eggs, duck gizzard confit, shallots, apples, baby mesclun, sorrel from Eataly: wild striped bass, morel mushrooms, fresh pasta, dried chickpeas, grated Parm-Reg cheese, herbs, baby leeks from my corner store: milk, sugar, unsalted butter, garlic

Each bunch was $4.

today: RAMPS!!!, clams, herbs, eggs, duck gizzard confit, shallots, apples, baby mesclun, sorrel

Oh, it was absolutely divine. I only wish I'd had bone-in lamb as opposed to boneless lamb shoulder. It exceeded my expectations in just about every way and the aroma while it was roasting in the oven should be bottled and sold. I'd make a mint off of that alone. Chermoula is a nice twist on the usual lamb with mint sauce. The vegetables in the pic above differ from David's recipe. My version contains: carrots, heirloom potatoes (Russian Banana specifically), peas, Jerusalem artichokes, salsify and shallots. It's a great way to clean out the vegetable crisper and use anything you've got lying around.

Roast lamb, braised vegetables, chermoula.