slkinsey

Just for the dessert record, I did make bread pudding for Sunday's dinner party. Okay, here is the rest of tonight: Here are the legs. I've deboned them, so they are now rectangles of skin-on dark meat. The turnip greens and diced mushrooms went inside, then they were wrapped in heavy foil and put in a water bath in the oven. Here I am cooking the breast meat (skin side down about 70% of the time) and also browning the skin on the cooked leg meat rolls. Meanwhile, I needed a drink. The true classic Martini: 2 parts gin, 1 part white vermouth, a dash of orange bitters and a lemon twist. Here is one view of the finished dish. Here's another.

Yes, congratulations Marlene. That looks great. It's always intimidatingly touch-and-go when you're using a technique you haven't used much before. And spit roasting is not as easy as it looks. I know some people will revile me for this, but... I... I... don't usually eat dessert.

Okay, chicken with Spring vegetables. Rather than roasting a whole chicken, I am going to cook it in sections off the bone. The legs will be deboned, stuffed and gently poached; and the breasts will be fried for a crispy skin. This will go with a melange of Spring vegetables glazed with butter and chicken stock. Here are the vegetables. I'll blanch/shock the turnips, onions and radishes prior to the glazing step. I'll also blanch and peel the fava beans. The morels I'll cook separately, and the asparagus is tender enough that it doesn't have to be blanched. I want everything with just a hint of crunch left. Here's the chicken. It's free roaming/organic. I'll stuff the legs with (blanched) turnip greens and diced mushrooms.

Tuesday's breakfast. Yadda yadda yadda.

Sorry. Probably the booze talking. The variety of potato is "Russian banana." The dish itself is inspired by Peter Luger's "German potatoes," which as far as I can tell is diced roasted potatoes.

We could do Thai food for the mystery meal, but only if I get to borrow JosephB.

I am by and large not a fan of vodka, but it is useful for the occasional drink and Charbay does make a good product. That is their blood orange vodka that I bought because I wanted to try making a kumquat-based drink from Town called Convent in Chile. The best place to get Charbay is Astor Wines down by Astor Place. That is actually probably the best area to get liquor in Manhattan, because right around the corner from Astor Wines is Warehouse Wines & Spirits. These two places combined likely represent the best selection of liquor in Manhattan.

Nothing fancy tonight. And light. We definitely wanted something light. First, though, a drink. . . This is the Pear Martini from Blue Ribbon. 2 ounces Belle de Brillet, 1 ounce citrus vodka, 1 ounce fresh line juice. In the glass and garnished. For dinner tonight, we made "hot soup featuring garlic" as the main event. In this case, it was what I call "faux pho" -- bean sprouts, slivered garlic, boiled short ribs, cilantro, scallion, garlic chive and pieces of paper thin lime with hot beef broth poured over. Just what the doctor ordered after a night of overindulgence.

I saved all the rendered fat and poured it back over the steaks on the platter. It's important, in this style, to cut the steak right on the platter on which you will be serving it (after resting the steak in the same platter). That way all the juices from the steak are in the platter and can be spooned back over the steak. For this reason, I didn't feel like it needed any additional butter. For a grilled steak, though, I like a pat of anchovy butter or herb butter melted over the steak in the platter. For the roasting stage, I stood the steaks up on their end bones (something you can't really do unless it's a very thick steak), put a thermometer probe down into the strip and roasted them to 125 degrees in a 350 degree oven.

Marlene, here's the truly amazing thing: Thanks to bergerka (still asleep), the kitchen this morning looks exactly the way it did before I started cooking yesterday. Maybe even better.

This morning's breakfast:

Most of it I buy at regular NYC liquor stores. The falernum and bonded Laird's I think I ended up finding at Spec's in Houston, TX the last time I was down there. If you can't find the Fee Brother's stuff (and it's fairly well available via online order), just contact them. They're good people: http://www.feebrothers.com/ And for bitters, don't forget Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6.

I'm barely conscious, but let's see if I can sum up. I just didn't have it in me to do this at 1 AM. . . First, a little bit more of the prep and cooking: Here we have some spinach and shallots before and after processing in preparation for being turned into creamed spinach. Always fun to see how much the spinach reduces in bulk. This is the caramel for the bread pudding at two different stages. Here's the bread pudding just before the custard went on to it. It's brioche cubes, caramel and Ghirardelli double chocolate chips. The custard was made from egg yolks, milk and cream. Here's some of the food cooking on the stove. Browning the porterhouse before standing it up on the end bones and moving it to the oven; German banana potatoes cooking with olive oil, pieces of whole garlic and, later, some rich chicken stock; mushrooms roasting in the oven with butter, thyme and, later, some bread crumbs and parmigiano-reggiano. Then it was time for a drink. 2 ounces of Laird's bonded applejack, 1/4 ounce of 2:1 demerara simple syrup, 2 bid dashes of Fee Brothers aromatic bitters. After we had that, a few of us were still thirsty, so I made a 2:1:1 Sidecar with Domaine Germain-Robin Fine Alambic Brandy, Cointreau and fresh lemon juice. Here are the two cocktails in the glass. The old fashioned applejack cocktail is on the left, the Sidecar on the right. Fat Guy brought over a dry kielbasa that we nibbled on with our drinks, along with some radishes ewindels brought. I've never had a dried kielbasa before. It was pretty good. Dinner proper started with a salad. Long julienne strips of cucumber, paper thin slices of red onion, chopped white anchovies, lemon juice and good Sicilian unfiltered evoo. Then it was time for the main event. Creamed spinach with crispy shallots (wilted/pressed spinach, cream, parmigiano-reggiano, crispy fried shallots). Russian banana potatoes. These cooked such a long time that the chicken stock I had added to the pan glazed on to the outside of the potatoes and caramelized/maillardized to much that the potatoes were like candy. The roasted mushrooms. The steaks. These turned out incredibly delicious. Really first rate. Just as tender as could be. And, at this thickness, cooked almost more like a roast. Each slice tended to be the same degree of doneness throughout, but there was a range of doneness available to satisfy most tastes. I preferred the rarer pieces, but even the tail pieces (which were cooked to a full medium at least) were juicy and delicious. By the time I got some food on my plate, I had lost the discipline to take pictures. Maybe later I'll take a few shots of the (shockingly small amount of) leftover steak to give an idea of how it looked in slice form. Since we found ourselves wanting something to drink, I was able to reach into my cellar and pull out a little something. This picture is after Fat Guy and I decanted it. As you can see from my avatar, I've been drinking the good French reds for quite a few years. Here is the finished bread pudding. ewindels also brought a strawberry tart. Both were most delicious.

So far this is what I have on the menu for this evening: Cocktail: An as-yet unnamed variation on the Tombstone -- 2 ounces of Laird's bonded (100 proof) applejack, 1 teaspoon 2:1 demerara simple syrup, 2 big dashes of Fee Brothers aromatic bitters, stir with cracked ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with fat lemon twist. Fat Guy may bring something to munch on. Then a salad: Cucumber, red onion, mint, and a touch of white anchovy. Then the steak: um. . . this will be steak And the sides: I'm going old-school -- creamed spinach, German potatoes and roasted mushrooms. Dessert: chocolate caramel bread pudding.

I seem to have very powerful Fairway-fu. Probably due to the fact that I've got no trouble elbowing back. A little salt on the outside won't draw enough liquid out of a 3 inch thick steak to dry it out, but it will get a nice bit of flavor into the meat. Also, what liquid it does draw to the surface is then available for Maillardization. As far as I know, salting steaks the day before is a French technique. Mushrooms! That's what I was almost forgetting!

Exactly. I find that guests appreciate a break between a heavy dinner and dessert, so I often don't put the bread pudding in the oven until we've stopped eating dinner.

Actually, I find that the easiest thing to do is cube up the bread and put it in the cooking dish (along with raisins, nuts, caramel, chocolate chips or whatever else you're adding -- if anything), make the custard right before dinner guests arrive (this is just whisking egg yolks with hot cream heated in the microwave and some sugar) and pour it over the bread, then let it soak in while you're eating dinner. Half an hour before you want to have dessert, toss it in the oven. Very simple.

Nothing like starting off Sunday morning with a few cappuccini. On Sunday mornings at the slkinsey household, we tend to have either waffles or bagels. Since we have an additional day off, why not both? This morning was bagels. These are from Absolute Bagel on Broadway between 107th and 108th. We always get their "mini-bagels." Their hand-rolled mini-bagels are, many people agree, the closest thing going these days to the "NYC bagels of the old days." They're just big enough to fit in the palm of your hand, with a nicely chewy crust and just the right amount of the traditional toppings. Not sweet like H&H. Of course, an "authentic traditional NYC bagel" like this could only be made by a family from Thailand! Here's one with a schmear of lox cream cheese. This is the last thing I'll eat before dinner. On the agenda for today: get a haircut, try to spend at least 60 minutes on the stairmaster to pre-burn off a few pieces of steak, go to Fairway for additional ingredients for tonight's dinner, prep for dinner, eat myself into a coma.

When possible, I like to get my ricotta from Alleva down in Little Italy. I think they make the best ricotta in the City (although their mozzarella can't hold a candle to the product out on Arthur Avenue). When I don't have time for to go down there, Fairway sells an excellent ricotta from behind the cheese counter -- fresh, dense and creamy.

They'd have to be giving out gold ingots for me to get up early. It's all I can do to drag myself out of bed at 7:30. Well, strictly speaking that's not true. In civilized countries like Italy, I tend to get up at around 6:30. But that's because I get to take a two hour nap in the afternoon. Mmmmmmm. Nap.

I've long thought that reduction sauces and braises need just a touch of acidity for balance, so I've taken to adding a bit of vinegar. As it so happens, Fairway has been selling a really nice, very concentrated 12 year old balsamic vinegar. It's not aceto balsamico tradizionale, but it's very thick and full flavored. I don't tend to measure these things, but I'd guess I used maybe a cup and a half of demiglace and two tablespoons of the Fairway 12 year balsamico. Using balsamic vinegar has the added advantage of bringing some sweetness to the table, which is also often a good thing in a braise or reduction sauce. Anyway, I cooked the ribs bone-side-down together with the demiglace and balsamico on the stovetop at a bare simmer for a couple of hours until tender. Nothing to it.

The pork looks awesome, Marlene. How did you make it? Must have been good with the corn dish, which I gather still had a bit of crunch.

Oh, yea. I wasn't suggesting that there aren't plenty of places where one can get fresh-from-the-farm asparagus for a much better price. But I think you'll agree that the cost of living/usual income is quite a bit lower in Ottowa than in NYC. Even then, the Greenmarket stuff is very expensive. But it's a price I'm willing to pay to support local farmers and get the best. Anyway... here's the rest of dinner tonight. . . I also made some pearl onions to go with the short ribs and gnocchi. Simmered them in rich chicken stock with smoked paprika and a touch of butter until the liquid evaporated and glazed the onions. On to ricotta gnocchi. I make these more often than potato gnocchi because they're delicious and so much easier to make. Start with good ricotta (not the watery Polly-O crap), a few egg yolks, flour and, if you're me, plenty of nutmeg. Mix into a light dough, adding just enough flour to bind it together. Roll the dough into cylinders and cut it into pieces. Get a guy with thick fingers and hairy forearms to flick each piece over the tines of a dinner fork, and then you're done. Toss them into boiling water and they're done when they float to the top. At this point dinner was almost ready and it was time for a drink: I decided to make a variation on a rum swizzle. The Barbancourt white rhum has a nice finish, not unlike a rhum agricole. This I made with 2 ounces of white Barbancourt, 1/4 ounce Velvet Falernum (a lightly alcoholic flavoring with almond, ginger, allspice, vanilla and lime notes), an ounce of lime zest-infused simple syrup, 3/4 ounce of fresh lime juice,a dash of Angostura bitters, a few mint leaves and plenty of crushed ice. This is a not-very-good picture of the finished short rib dish. It's unfortunate that the short ribs don't stand out very well. We followed the short ribs with a salad: shredded romaine lettuce, red onion, julienned granny smith apple and pecans dressed with evoo, lemon juice and pumpkinseed oil.

I should point out that that's a high price for asparagus even for NYC. Although most things tend to cost more in metro NYC (and we tend to earn more here as well), asparagus can be had here for two bucks a pound (or sometimes less). The high price is the price for "just picked on the farm and trucked in to Manhattan at the crack of dawn this morning to be sold at the Greenmarket" asparagus. That sort of thing commands a high price around here.

Tonight's dinner is going to be braised beef short ribs with ricotta gnocchi. I'll probably do a chopped salad as well. I ended up settling on beef short ribs because I found myself in the vicinity of Western Beef. At Western Beef you can get whole primal cuts of meat at deep discount, cut to order. They were selling whole slabs of beef short ribs for two dollars a pound. I had them cut into four sections. On the left is what they look like when I got them home. It's a double layer, with one short rib slab on the top and another on the bottom. You can see the lines where they were run through the band saw. On the right is after I separated them into individual ribs, removed the membranes and trimmed the fat and silverskin. Here they are browning off in the enameled iron casserole, and on the right is a pile of ribs that have finished browning. They are now on the stove at a bare simmer, moistened with some demiglace and a touch of aged balsamic vinegar.