Shaya

Celebration - Part 1 - of my birthday last night. Last year this time a friend - who loves to bake, not so much to cook - asked me what we were having for my birthday dinner. I told her I'd made ravioli. Did you make a cake? she asked. Ah, no, I made ravioli, I answered. Then I got the "look". You HAVE to have a cake on your birthday! she said. So I made a cake for myself. And perhaps a new tradition is born. I made my dream meal. Started with an Australian Seaview Sparkling Shiraz First time we tried this. It was very fruity, strong berry notes, almost felt like the wine we used to drink as kids at Passover. Refreshing, but I much prefer the Banrock Station that we usually buy. Gnocchi alla sorrentina - homemade potato gnocchi baked in a my marinara sauce with basil and fresh mozarella Local Organic NY Strip Loin - with Fleur de Sel Fennel Braised with White Wine, Garlic, Anchovies Bittersweet Chocolate Torte with Homemade Raspberry Sorbet

Really nice food going on here. Peter I love the look of the shrimp and chips dish. My older guy said, "that looks great". I know about the cornmeal trick as I've read about it in many an Italian cookbook; now I must try it. Doctortim, Lasagna looks great; my husband opened up the week by hinting that it's been awhile since I made mine. It's one of our favorites. Bueno, beautiful fish (salmon?) and gorgeous plating. Carbonara looks great too. Bruce, so much great food; satay - yum; the lamb; the paella. You are a walking ad for that high-powered stove you have! Chufi, scrolling down the page I know your photos any day. Your pork looks delicious. Love all the photography. Ann, aside from your amazing meals, I must comment on all the gorgeous bread you've been baking. Do you freeze the extra loaves and if so do you notice any major change in texture? I always freeze the extra flatbreads that I bake, but I haven't tried with loaf-style breads.

I love the sauce that results from slow-braised meats, especially involtini, as the fillings inevitably flavor the sauce. I don't know how garlicky these were meant to be, but personally, whenever a recipe calls for garlic that will not be hitting heat directly, I soften the whole garlic cloves on the pan with a little olive oil before putting them into the filling. I just prefer the taste of garlic without that raw "edge".

That is just gorgeous, Chufi.

Looks beautiful (and delicious) Chufi. Great looking dinner Megan, I have yet to see those wild asparagus in real life but I've seem them on eGullet so they must exist . A big welcome to you kbjesq!

What a gorgeous pie, Foodman. Imagine if we lived together, there would be A LOT of breads and pastas around the house! (We'd be as big as a house, I'd imagine, too!)

rwsweet, that is a very ambitious menu. Did you prepare it all on your own? What was the occasion for the elaborate meal? Bruce, love the look of that tortilla dinner. I never think of making potatoes that way; they look amazing. Tonight we had a dinner from the Basilicata region of Italy, Strangolapreti alla Potentina. It is typically made with pork but I used beef instead. The meat is rolled around a mixture of parsley, garlic, pancetta, pecorino romano and spices, is braised in a tomato-based sauce and served as a second course. The sauce is used to dress a homemade pasta called "Strangolapreti" which means, literally, strangle the priest. My little guy and I had fun making the pasta together. It was chewy and wonderful. Beef Rolls with Yellow Beet Greens - blanched and sauteed with garlic, chiles and olive oil and still super-duper bitter Strangolapreti - chewy, tasty, divine! Dessert was some of summer's bounty, cherries, nectarine, and these beauties which I'd never seen before. Any guesses? (Answer at bottom of post). red apricots!

I'm in! I'll make the gnocchi... That dinner looks great, Kevin. I can't believe you have enough mojo to pull off these meals with a little baby around. You are truly a diehard! Hathor, the eggplant dish sounds really simple and good. Congrats to your son on graduating! Pontormo, your eggplant dish also sounds great with the potatoes - sort of reminiscent of my version of moussaka... Foodman I have a foccacia with olives that I wanted to try to squeeze in this month. Yours looks great, I love the pancetta idea. Interesting how foccacia is popular in this region. I have to give Foodman total credit for our amazing dinner tonight - it is blatant cribbing, I know, but I had to try and make the Strangolapreti Basilicata myself. My little guy wants to make orechiette - so it's on the radar - but today I told him we were making a type of orechiette to go with a rolled-up meat dish. I looked at the recipe Foodman linked to upthread, and also noticed that Micol Negrin has it in her book Rustico (Love this Book!) but serves it with wheat berries rather than the pasta. Can anyone tell me what are wheat berries? Are they like juniper berries? I started the sauce with some sliced onion as I felt it needed it, and noticed that Negrin adds this to her version as well. I also added a cup of stock for flavor. Otherwise the two versions of the meat preparation itself are pretty much the same. Having not grown up with pork, I still haven't quite gotten used to the idea of cooking big hunks of it (unless it's been smoked or cured...) so I used a flank cut of beef which my butcher assured me would become tender enough for the delicate baby teeth of my bambinos. It was wonderful. This is my idea of the perfect meal. It's self-serving - the sauce goes with the pasta, the meat makes the second course - perfect. Even my sweetie, who normally prefers meat to pasta and doughy foods, was digging into the pot to find more of the pasta (shhh...I have a second batch hiding in the freezer...) Preparation of Beef Plated with Yellow Beet Greens - blanched and sauteed with garlic, chiles and olive oil and still super-duper bitter Strangolapreti - chewy, tasty, divine!

Yes, David, I agree, your meals look beautiful, crisply photographed and tasty.

Stevarino, this thread is magnificent. Thanks so much for sharing. I know how timeconsuming it can be! I would love to attend a course like this one. It would be so much fun and so informative. We almost went to Puglia last year and I was going to do some coooking, but we had to change plans. Funny enough, this morning my little guy decided that tonight we should have orechiette with peas and sausage. I have been mulling over in my head the idea of making my own - especially after seeing Foodman produce something similar on the Basilicata and Calabria thread. Then this afternoon my little guy asked if we could make them by hand...he certainly keeps me on my toes! So my question is...did you make orechiette while you were there? If so, what flours did you use? When I had them at Lupa in NYC last year (they were incredible) the waitress told me it's the one type of pasta that eludes her, even though she grew up making pasta at home with her parents.

Emily, Watch this pita video from Julia Child's series. It will change your pita-baking life! Click

Thanks for sharing, Peter. It looks very pretty where you are. Joel and Kim are great, we've met them and had dinner at their place, and have enjoyed Joel's cured meats as well. I also love the mid-east store, and Pete's, and thanks for all the great photos of the farmer's market.

What a beautiful page of food. I love your pita, Chufi. Just beautiful. That lamb looks wonderful, and the topping of potato and cheese, yum. How did you keep the topping from drying out while the lamb cooked - was it covered the whole time? PNW folks, that dinner looks amazing. I love the soups, the chips, the chicken and lamb...wow. Bruce that dinner looks really tasty.

That pork looks great, Bruce. Nishla, you have been making some really nice looking soups. Chufi, your health week looks very inspired. It would be hard for me to think that way for a whole week. Everything looks so tasty. My little guy has been working very hard in the kitchen this week. He wanted to make a soup, so he put together a vegatable soup with onion, carrot, potato, split peas, bacon, pear (his signature touch!) and pasta (his passion) while I made a stock on the back burner. I julienned the veggies and he cut them into dice. Put it all together and we got this: We also made scones from the Bread Baker's Apprentice's author Peter Reinhart. The proportions were in an article in the May 2007 Fine Cooking. As it turned out my older guy's "girlfriend" stayed for dinner - so this may well have been a momentous meal in their history together. Then again, they are only 6. This week we also enjoyed some braised lamb with shitakes and oregano, and homemade tagliatelle with fava - mint pesto. My little guy enjoyed making the pasta with his little girlfriend.

Elie that dinner looks amazing from start to finish. In fact I think it's the type of dish I've been pining for since we started the region but it did not turn up in my own research. I will add it to my list! I made a lamb dish inspired by my readings on Basilicata. The meat was slowly braised with onion, shitake, stock, wine and oregano. We also had a ligurian treat - homemade tagliatelle with fava-mint pesto. The lamb was very tasty in its simplicity.

Those are awesome photos of the farmer's market. They are indeed bursting at the seams. There is talk of moving to a larger, more permanent venue; I personally am rooting for the move. Blossoms are a bit late, but I am hopeful. Just went to Pete's Frootique (no relation to me), got permission to take photos - they were very cool about it unlike other major grocers in the region. Don't know about Ca Hoa, but will investigate. I always go to South & Henry Streets. Pizza corner is still going strong - I'll go there for more "research". ← Pete's Frootique has always been a very motivating place to shop. I recently heard that they had been bought by a large grocery chain, but I have yet to have this confirmed. On my latest visits I have noticed a big change, though. The produce did not seem to have the same appeal, there was no sign of Pete anywhere - he is usually seen on the floor handling the produce, and most importantly, the piano player wasn't at his perch. Have you heard anything about this? Pizza corner pizza is great for what it is; late-night or sunny afternoons when you need a quick bite and want to people-watch. It gives the city a lot of character. I take my kids down there during the summer and we sit up in the tall stools in front of the open window and feel the sun on our faces. As for Ca Hoa, they are still going strong, both on the retail and wholesale side. Peter, curious, how do you eat as a family? Do you cook separate meals for the kids? Do you eat at the same time as they do or do you opt for a more peaceful mealtime after they are snug in their beds? Do you go out for meals with the kids?

Hello neighbor, good to see you here blogging. I hope the weather picks up so you can show the eGulleters that it's not all rain and fog here... Do you think you might fit in a trip to the farmer's market next weekend?

This has been a great adventure, Yunnermeier. Thanks so much for sharing. I have been dreaming about roti canai ever since you posted the picture. How hard can it be to make the stuff, really?! I hope to bring my husband and kids to your part of the world soon. I really want them to have some of the experiences I had during my visits there - it's pretty magical.

I am beginning to get BBQ envy with all the gorgeous glazed and smoked dinners here. Gorgeous bread and meatball dish, Chufi. Overeating is a hazard when you make your own bread. Last time I made baguette my little guy and I stood over the counter after dinner was over and kept taking "just one more piece". He's an eater after my own heart. I think most bread really is best just after it's baked. The following night he asked for a piece of the same baguette and was disappointed, saying, "It's not warm inside anymore". Prawncrackers - thank you for finally putting a name to this crazy meal I prepared. I kept telling myself, what are you doing, fried potatoes don't go with raw fish, but another voice kept saying, it's ok, it's a classic combination. I couldn't put a finger on it until you mentioned it - it's the good 'ole fish 'n chips combo! Kellytree that is very interesting ravioli. I suspect the buckwheat is in the dough; what's inside the cute little parcels? Ann, your homemade fries look different this time - they look more like mine usually do. Did you use a different type of potato? (Incidentally, last week with my burgers I made mine with russet potatoes to see if they'd look more like yours!)

I'm still checking out different beef suppliers at our farmer's market. This time I bought a boneless blade roast. I decided to make a stew based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. The verdict? I found this particular cut to have a lot of sinew. Once cooked the meat was very tender but somewhat stringy. Not my favorite cut, I'd say. On the other hand, the flavor of the stew and the dumplings were awesome. Newcastle Ale Beef Stew with Dumplings and Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms

The other night we had a Persian Stew with Okra, Veal, Mint, lemon and lime. The following night we had my Eggplant Ricotta Sauce with Rigatoncini. and Salad with Endive, Yellow Peppers, Pear-Blue Cheese, Toasted Almonds We found some gorgeous yellowfin tuna over the weekend; some of us had it sashimi style; my sweetie wanted his pan-seared. Sesame Crusted Pan Seared Yellowfin Tuna with Sesame Wasabi Dressing

Those are some gorgeous birds, David. By the way, my work colleague was also a David Ross! Ann, I love the photo of those prawns. And that chicken pie looks divine- the delicacy of that flaky crust, the creamy goodness inside, perfect!

Hello again. Good to hear it's still going well with DutchBoy. Where do you in Malaysia? Are you in KL? Travelling through your country was a culinary feast for me. The blend of the different cultures - Chinese, Indian, Malay - brought forth so many different cuisines. I really enjoyed something we called roti canai - it was a type of flatbreat, crispy on the outside yet chewy on the inside, which the cook would slash in a checkerboard pattern and serve it with a curry. I dream about re-creating this at home, all these years later. Could you tell me anything else about it - or better yet - have some for me this week? I'd love to see it again.

That's a great looking dinner. We would love the eggplant in our house. The chicken is so unusual, I've never seen anything like it. It sounds tasty though. Your rice dish is a Persian one my Grandmother made for me when she wanted to treat me and I still make it often when I'm in the mood for those amazing potatoes. We always use basmati for these dishes in our family. What sort of rice did you use? Also, we always cook the basmati in the way you describe (with or without potatoes) by par-boiling and then steaming. My Grandmother also showed me another trick, which is to add one or two cups of cold water to the pot after the rice has boiled for about 3 minutes; for some reason the work the rice has to do to come to the boil again causes the rice to double in length. It's amazing.

That's exactly the remedy my Mom taught me. My Dad's remedy - which he taught me when I was a lot older - was a hot brandy.