Cooking from "Sunday Suppers at Lucques" by Suzanne Goin

[FrogPrincesse]

A couple of weeks ago we had friends over for dinner and I made the Lamb Osso Buco (p. 192) again.

On the first day, I prepared the seasoning for the lamb: lemon zest, thyme, garlic, rosemary, olive oil, and plenty of black pepper.

The (giant) lamb shanks were marinated in the fridge overnight.

The second day, I browned the shanks in a Le Creuset pot after having removed most of the herbs/garlic.

Using the same pot, I cooked the aromatics: onion, carrots, fennel, thyme, bay leaves, and the herbs/garlic from the lamb.

Then I deglazed with white wine and reduced it before adding chicken stock and a few parsley sprigs. I did not have veal stock so I used demi-glace and water to cover the shanks. Then the pot went in the oven for 3 hours.

When it came out the meat was starting to come off the bone.

I made the dish up to this point, and the night of our dinner party all I had to do was brown the shanks in the oven, reduce the sauce, and prepare the vegetables and tapenade.

For the vegetables, I borrowed from two other recipes in the book and made red chard sauteed in olive oil (p. 301), and fingerlings sauteeds in butter (p. 86).

I was a little skeptical about the tapenade but decided to give it a try. It's a chunky tapenade with a portion of the ingredients pounded in a mortar and the rest chopped and mixed in. The ingredients are traditional: black olives, garlic, anchovies, capers, parsley, olive oil, and lemon juice.

Here is the plated dish.

In the end the tapenade was wonderful and added a welcome acidity to the dish.

Edited February 26, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Australian barramundi with winter vegetables bagna cauda and toasted breadcrumbs

I used baqueta which is a type of grouper/seabass. Snapper and halibut are also suggested for this recipe. Like other fish recipes in the book, it is one of the easier/faster recipes. The fish is seasoned in advance with lemon zest, thyme, and parsley.

 

Breadcrumbs (I used panko) are toasted in the oven with olive oil and then mixed with the parsley. The vegetables (I used green beans and Romanesco broccoli) are blanched. She makes a bagna cauda with olive oil, butter, anchivies, chilies, garlic, and thyme. The vegetables are sautéed with a portion of the bagna cauda. To plate she places the vegetables first, then the fish, a squeeze of lemon juice, the rest of the bagna cauda, and the toasted breadcrumbs with the parsley.

I really enjoyed this simple preparation for fish.

Full recipe here on google books.

Edited March 7 by FrogPrincesse
Restored missing picture (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Orecchiette carbonara with English peas and pea shoots (page 80)

Suzanne Goin's twist on the classic carbonara is nothing short of delicious. First she uses a mix of bacon and pancetta cooked until slightly crisped. This was great for me as I had just finished curing some fresh bacon and tesa (similar to pancetta but flat) and wanted to find a dish to showcase them. Onions, garlic and thyme are added to the bacon/pancetta and cooked for a short time, and then mixed with fresh shelled peas (which I happened to have from my CSA). The pasta cooked al dente is added to this mixture, together with salt and plenty of black pepper. The pasta is transferred to a large bowl containing a mixture of eggs, egg yolks and parmesan. Pasta water can be used as needed if the sauce is too thick (I had to use about a tablespoon). Lastly, parsley and pea shoots (I used baby spinach) are mixed in and more parmesan is grated on top.

I really liked how the orecchiette acted as a receptacle for the sauce, peas, and bacon/pancetta dice. Also including greens in this dish was a nice change. The peas were particularly great in this recipe and added a little pop of flavor.

Recipe here on google books.

[Kouign Aman]

Looks great! You make the whole book seem like a winner.

I really like the taste of peashoots. Any idea where to get them in San Diego?

[FrogPrincesse]

Specialty Produce has them. Pea shoots or tendrils regularly make an appearance in their farmers' market bag (CSA program). I imagine that they are pretty easy to grow.

[Kouign Aman]

Hey, they (Specialty Produce) were in the paper recently, so I know who you are talking about.

Thanks for the info

[FrogPrincesse]

Hey, they (Specialty Produce) were in the paper recently, so I know who you are talking about.

Thanks for the info

You are welcome. Regarding Specialty Produce: they sell to a large number of restaurants in San Diego but are also open to the public from 8 to 4 (more information on their website here). You may remember that I talked about them in my eG foodblog last year (see here for a few pictures of their facility). They are very friendly and their selection is quite overwhelming. It's definitely worth a visit.

You make the whole book seem like a winner.

After using this book for a few years now, I would say that it is really solid. I made about a quarter of the recipes in the book so far (there are a lot that I made but haven't posted about on eGullet) and there is nothing that I did not like. The instructions are always very precise. Sometimes there are a lot of steps and pots & pans to clean afterwards, but the results are always great. For people who live in Southern California it's an excellent book because the recipes incorporate a lot of seasonal produce.

[Rodzilla]

peas and pancetta (tessa) sounds delicious! I'm impressed that you cure your own. How long have you been doing it?

[FrogPrincesse]

Hi Rodzilla!

Good to see you here and welcome to eGullet.

It was my first time making tesa, however I've been curing bacon regularly since first doing it about a year ago for Charcutepalooza. It has a tendency to disappear very quickly even though I make 5 or 6 pounds at a time - I give most of it to friends and family.

For the tesa, I used Paul Bertolli's recipe from Cooking by Hand. The process wasn't very different from curing bacon but the taste is completely different due to the red wine and spices that are used in the cure.

Edited March 22, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Rodzilla]

Thanks! I thought it was about time I made a post I definitely can see why the bacon wouldn't last long. Thanks for mentioning charceutapalooza, this is the first I've heard of it and it lead me to so many great blog posts.

I've been wanting to do some leaner curing - I really want to do tuna heart a la Chris Cosentino

[FrogPrincesse]

I have so much catching up to do on this thread. I can't believe that I haven't posted the Easter meal yet... In the interim here is what I made last night. I had very little time to cook so I looked for something tasty and simple.

Veal scaloppine with salsa verde-brown butter

The veal is pounded, dredged in flour, and cooked rapidly in olive oil.

The salsa is made in a mortar and ressembles a tapenade with herbs replacing the olives (if that makes sense). It contains parsley, mint, marjoram, garlic, anchovy, capers, lemon juice, and olive oil. A little bit of the salsa is mixed with brown butter and drizzled on the veal, and the rest is served on the side.

In the book the veal is served on top of polenta and bitter greens. I ran out of steam for the polenta and instead served it with arugula and sugar snap peas.

[FrogPrincesse]

I made the Grilled duck breasts with crème fraîche and roasted grapes again, this time served family-style. It's a great way to cook duck breasts. Grilled with a simple juniper berry-thyme rub, they are full of flavor.

[FrogPrincesse]

Treviso with roquefort, walnuts and saba

I substituted roquefort for gorgonzola that the original recipe calls for.

Great interplay of bitter (treviso), acid (the dressing is quite zingy), salt (roquefort), sweet (saba), and even umami (roquefort). The walnuts add a welcome crunch and another layer of flavor.

[Marmish]

Thanks for keeping up this thread. Everything looks amazing. I had this book from the library a long time ago and had some things earmarked. Must find them. The salads you posted are especially appealing to me these days.

[rarerollingobject]

Beautiful food in this thread, FrogPrincesse - I'm really thinking about ordering this book now!

[FrogPrincesse]

Thank you for the nice words, Marmish and Kate! I am still cooking frequently from this book. I really like the flavor combinations in general, and Suzanne's attention to detail. I can't wait for her new book!

Edited January 21, 2013 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Beets and oranges with mint and orange flower water

The original recipe calls for tangerines. This is pretty much as simple as it looks. I loved the flavor combination, the earthiness of the beets with the citrus and the pop of flavor from the mint. The dressing had olive oil, red wine vinegar, shallots, citrus juice and a touch of orange flower water. The salad is finished with a little spritz of orange flower water.

[Paul Bacino]

On the dinner thread a while back I talked about her phenomenal burger recipe, the Grilled Pork Burgers that I've nicknamed triple pork burgers. It's impossible to go wrong with ground pork, chorizo, and diced bacon. Also the seasoning mix of sautéed shallots and garlic, roasted cumin, thyme, parsley, and chile de arbol is especially flavorful. Then she tops the burger with Manchego cheese (which I was not familiar with before the book and now love), arugula for a touch of bitterness, and aioli (my husband decided he preferred barbecue sauce so that's what you see on the picture). They are juicy and super flavorful.

The recipe is available hereon Google books.

I want to make these.. what buns did you use?

[FrogPrincesse]

On the dinner thread a while back I talked about her phenomenal burger recipe, the Grilled Pork Burgers that I've nicknamed triple pork burgers. It's impossible to go wrong with ground pork, chorizo, and diced bacon. Also the seasoning mix of sautéed shallots and garlic, roasted cumin, thyme, parsley, and chile de arbol is especially flavorful. Then she tops the burger with Manchego cheese (which I was not familiar with before the book and now love), arugula for a touch of bitterness, and aioli (my husband decided he preferred barbecue sauce so that's what you see on the picture). They are juicy and super flavorful.

The recipe is available hereon Google books.

I want to make these.. what buns did you use?

I used caramelized onion rolls from a local bakery. I have a craving for pork burgers all of a sudden :-)

[FrogPrincesse]

Here are the Beets and tangerines with mint and orange flower water again from a recent dinner party. This time I used assorted beets from my CSA (golden, pink and red) together with tangerines (Sumo citrus) and moro blood oranges. It was fantastic.

[Plantes Vertes]

I've really loved reading your thread, @FrogPrincesse. I hope you'll have time for more posting soon!

Edited March 22, 2013 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

I've really loved reading your thread, @FrogPrincesse. I hope you'll have time for more posting soon!

Thanks Plantes Vertes! This reminds me that I have forgotten to post my 2012 Easter meal that was cooked mostly from the book. Better post it before Easter 2013!

[FrogPrincesse]

Regarding Easter 2012, here was the menu for our family meal, mostly from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.

Mother's ruin punch (Phil Ward)
Curried English pea soup with crème fraîche (Lucques)
Blood oranges, dates, Parmesan and almonds (Lucques)

Herb roasted rack of lamb with flageolet gratin, roasted radicchio and tapenade (Lucques)
Crème fraîche panna cotta with strawberries (Lucques)
Chocolate pots de crème (David Lebovitz)

After a glass of punch, we started with the curried English pea soup with crème fraîche.

It's a pea, lettuce and mint soup. The pea and lettuce combination reminds me of a traditional French dish, braised peas with carrots and lettuce. The curry brightens the flavor of the soup and the mint adds a touch of freshness. It's comforting and evocative of spring. I have to say that I have been impressed with the soup recipes in the book, they are all very good.

The recipe is available here.

[FrogPrincesse]

The second course was this salad of Blood Oranges, Dates, Parmesan and Almonds (more details here).

[FrogPrincesse]

Better late than never... This is my Easter 2012 meal still.

The herb-roasted rack of lamb was served with roasted radicchio, tapenade, and a very nice flageolet gratin. The lamb was coated with thyme, rosemary, garlic, pepper and left in the fridge overnight. It was roasted in the oven after a sear on the stove. The gratin was a little bit of work but it was delicious. It has breadcrumbs, fennel, onions, garlic, and plenty of herbs (rosemary, chile de arbol, thyme, bay leaf).