Dinner! 2002

[Jinmyo]

Israeli couscous cooked with leeks, portobello, shitake, oyster, shimeiji mushrooms, served cold with lots of parsley and a bit of citrus. Beet gaspacho topped with grilled chevre. Frittata with fruilano, roma tomatoes, huge shelled shrimp. Deep-fried shrimp shells and heads. Tempura red snapper.

edit: Forgot to mention aioli dip for the snapper.

[Toby]

Grilled quail (marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary), tabbouleh. It was still very hot here, not much rain yet.

[Saffy]

Last night.. a rushed dinner to feed a small army

Fresh fettucine with carbonara sauce and hot buttered leeks and bacon. Some fresh parmesan grated over the top.

Rhubarb and almond jalousie with thick cream for dessert.

[Wilfrid]

Thick slices of roast pork, stuffed with fresh herbs. A sort of charcutiere sauce (red wine, veal stock,mustard, cornichons). Savoy cabbage with lardons.

[Toby]

Calamari soup (made with very small calamari) with Calabrian dried chile peppers, lots of garlic, and white wine. Added cherry tomatoes (sungold and tiny red currants) and some bush basil leaves for last few minutes of cooking, and then stirred in some fregola just at the end. Microgreen salad. (And everything but the wine, peppers and fregola was from the farmers' market.)

[Wilfrid]

A sort of ersatz goulash, finishing up the roast pork. Onions, garlic, tomato paste, sweet paprika from Kalustyan's, spicy red pimentos, less than a cup of light beer, and the chunks of pork warmed gently through in the resulting glop. Red and tasty, with a big, rustic boiled potato.

[Akiko]

Bella,

if you coat ahi in macadamia's can you still get a good sear on it?

[Priscilla]

Bella, I had the same thought as Akiko about your ahi. I like the Pacific-ingredient layering idea, at least both macadamias and ahi would be Pacific for me!

Last night after a hot day appetites suppressed but somewhat evident, plus ingredients had to be on hand.

Another variation in an ongoing exploration of deconstructed BLTs, this time in the World of Pasta, bacon cut up and rendered (with a couple of later-removed whole garlic cloves), diced plum tomatoes added and not too cooked but not raw neither, rustic arugula stirred into the last few moments of the fat spaghetti's boiling, Parmigiano Reggiano added when everything was tossed in the bowl. No attempt to serve super hot.

Santa Rosa plum & orange sorbetto, which ended up representing that plums can be pretty good. Useful, because Santa Rosas seem like they're going to be abundant this year.

[SobaAddict70]

rustic arugula

huh?

[Priscilla]

rustic arugula

huh?

Soba, rustic arugula is what Renee Shepherd calls it on her Renee's Garden seed packet. It's got long, skinny, jagged leaves, is a bit stronger in flavor than the rounder-leafed type, and seems a bit slower-growing. Yellow flowers, too, rather than white. Very useful plant.

[cabrales]

For dinner last night, I made marinated cherry tomatoes. The intrinsic flesh of the tomatoes was fairly sweet. I decided to foresake the rosemary route, and fashioned a marinade from olive oil (purchased with an infusion of Sicilian organic lemons), lemon zest, lemon juice, dried, finely ground coriander (leaves), chives and a pinch of black pepper. I cut the tomatoes, which were small even for cherry varieties, into two and the jus from the fruit ran into the marinade. I let this sit for a while, before serving the tomatoes to myself with an aged balsamic on the side (unnecessary in hindsight). The outcome was acceptable.

[Jinmyo]

cabrales, did you have anything with this? Did you use salt?

[tommy]

i made a hamburger. yeah yeah, it sounds lame. but it was from freshly ground meat. details can be found on the making your own hamburger meat thread on the cooking board.

[Jinmyo]

I made panini (pressed grilled sandwiches) of several varities: thinly sliced roast pork with a pepper crust with porcini paste; tallegio and prosciutto; provolone and tomato concasee with basil; Monterey jack with chipotle/adobo puree; Stilton with bacon. Served with tomato and red pepper broth (roast, puree, strain many times, white wine and so on) and frites with fresh avacado mayo, full sour kosher dills and black Sicilian olives.

[Toby]

Smothered chicken, smoked hot venison sausage and big walla walla onion over rice with sauteed summer squash. (Everything but rice from farmers' market; that Regina Schrambling article was very annoying.)

[Jinmyo]

Toby, what is smothered chicken? What is a walla walla onion?

[Steve Martin]

Thought I would try posting a picture.

Joints of Guinea Fowl roasted with garlic and rosemary. Strips of parsnip and carrot roasted in duck fat and oil and sauté of spinach. Did not go for a proper purée of spinach, but did put some nutmeg in.

Sauce of rich fowl stock, rosemary, cream, dab of mustard and fecule of potato flour.

Steve Martin.

[Steve Klc]

My wife and I co-cooked for a little group of ten this weekend so I can finally contribute to this thread. We spent much more time painting, creating, decorating and readying the condo than on the food and wine, but most of the plates were "cleaned" so it must have been at least tolerable. Colleen took the lead on the apps, I chose all the wines, then took the lead on the first three courses, then Colleen handled the two meat courses, then I did the pre-dessert and she handled the main dessert and all petit fours. The menu, all in small tasting portions:

Pre-meal munchies while sitting around sipping wine: Olives (virtually ignored--we'll be eating olives for months); Prosciutto-wrapped melon cubes on toothpicks; Watermelon balls and cherry tomato halves with olive oil, sea salt and basil in Vietnamese soup spoons. We didn't want to worry about these, but sit and talk.

Wines: 2000 Navarro White Riesling; 2001 Chehalem Pinot Gris; 2001 Les domaines Grassa SARL Lalande Sauvignon; 2000 Bridgman Yakima Valley Viognier.

Gazpacho--served in a square white bowl--first in the bowl a confetti dice of red, yellow and green pepper, shallot and cucumber floating in clear tomato water, then some shavings of carrot, then a layer of pink gazpacho foam was applied (400 ml gazpacho seasoned, whizzed, strained with a little cream and a sheet of gelatin, added to the iSi Profi whipper) then on top of the foam a yellow and red cherry tomato half, chiffonade of basil, sea salt and a spritz of sherry vinegar and olive oil. This was all prepped ahead and just had to be plated.

Wine: Gruner Veltliner (I forget which.)

Apple/Curry/Mussel soup--served cool to room temperature in shallow clear glass bowl, sprinkled in first a fine dice of apple (Fuji, sweet) then a quenelle of creme fraiche in the center, then 5 cold steamed mussels piled on top of the creme, then the "more yellow than orange" curry mussel cream poured in the bowl (white wine, cream, mussel and clam juice, shallots, ginger and curry powder--my blend, toasted whole and ground--heavy on the fennel and coriander seed--then strained), then a pinch of chopped chive and a few drops of curry infused grapeseed oil drizzled on the surface. This just had to be plated as well.

Wine: 2001 Lucien Albrecht Alsace Gewruztraminer

(Colleen had cleared out our small kitchen of extraneous stuff, like sheetpans, the toaster oven, pots and pans, bowls, anything we didn't need--and then stacked all the dishes, glassware, serveware we needed on the now free racks--and created space for my three courses--which I had all laid out on sheet trays, one for each course.)

Shrimp risotto--done in the microwave a la Barbara Kafka (so not to inordinately heat up the kitchen or require me to stand there stirring.) This was started during the gazpacho course and takes 35 minutes from start to finish. Arborio, butter, oil, shrimp, shrimp stock, flat leaf parsley, leek, fennel, peas, asparagus, parmesan, salt and pepper.

(Fava beans were done ahead-- poached, skins removed, set aside.) Molded in a metal demisphere and inverted on plate, a few fava beans placed on top of each dome, a few drops of truffle oil on plate, a few drops of olive oil on plate, raw cauliflower grated on top (original idea Jose Andres.)

Wines: still the Gewurz

Duck confit in phyllo tartlettes, room temp, with jalapeno-corn relish on the side (white corn boiled, shaved off the cob with cilantro, shallot, red pepper and a vinaigrette)

Wines: 2000 Domaine de Coste Chaude Cotes du Rhone Villages, 2000 Chateau de Valcombe Costieres de Nimes

Grilled pork loin, Israeli cous-cous salad with dried cranberry and sun dried tomato, balsamic reduction with a frisee tossed in a different vinaigrette.

Pre-dessert--tangerine juice foam with lemon verbena syrup, with cherry halves, blueberries, red currants, grated pistachio.

Wine: 2001 Nivole Michele Chiarlo Moscato d'Asti 2001

Dessert--phyllo napoleon with thin layers of flourless chocolate cake, espresso creme brulee and caramel bavarian sprinkled with chocolate covered rice krispies.

Wine: 1996 Seppelt Rutherglen Show Tokay D.P. 57

Petits fours--little cubes of traditional Opera cake, a rose buttercream/cardamom ganache/pistachio jaconde Opera cake, assorted little molded chocolates.

Wine: Lustau Solera Reserva Pedro Ximenez "San Emilio"

A few additional notes--the pork loin (also all fruit, corn and frisee) came from the Arlington Farmer's market--and was larger than Colleen was used to--since the pigs were older. (She had practiced with these loins a few times and all the previous ones were very small, called "fish tails" or fish loins I think.

The tangerine juice was from Fresh Fields/Whole Foods Market. I was planning to do a peach foam from fresh peaches, but ran out of time. All my seafood, vegetables came from Fresh Fields as well, didn't want to take the chance on the Farmer's market not having what I needed. Plus, I needed to do a complete gazpacho for the foam the day before anyway. The shrimp I chose, unbeknowngst to me at the time, had two veins--so I had to clean top and bottom--and for those who might want to know how I made the shrimp stock it was just the heads and shells of the shrimp, carrot and leek scraps, celery scraps, an onion half with a clove stuck in it, some wine, some clam juice, boiled for 20 minutes or so and strained.

[Varmint]

I almost feel like starting a new thread: "What did I cook for my 4 young children last night?" with a subtitle of, "and what did they actually eat?"

Something tells me that it will lack the drama of most of the posts in this subject.

[Blue Heron]

Toby, what is smothered chicken? What is a walla walla onion?

If I may speak for Toby... Walla Walla onions are supersweet onions, similar in taste to vidalia's, grown in Walla Walla, WA (the town my mother was raised in in Eastern WA). They are in season right now, and I've also got some growing in my garden. They have a high water content and cannot be stored as long as regular onions. They are so delicious. My mom used to talk about people in her town eating them like apples, but I still can't imagine that.

Steve Klc, your dinner description was such a pleasure to read!

[Steve Klc]

Jin--my pale imitation apple/curry/mussel soup was ripped right from the menu of a far superior meal, chef and restaurant here in Great Falls, VA called Le Relais, where I dined about two weeks ago. It's hidden in a strip mall and the chef is Yannick Cam, now slightly graying but once a bad boy culinary savant/genius that many around here felt rivalled if not surpassed Jean Louis Palladin and Gerard Pangaud. I had a lamb curry dish of his in 1983 (when I was cooking around town) that still is one of the best taste memories I've ever had. He was doing curry before Roellinger and doing it well. Le Relais could be the finest fine dining experience at the moment in DC--the most consummate blend of service, decor, wine and food--based on my sole visit. Yannick's soft-shell crab with a cilantro cream sauce, from that dinner, is the finest single dish I've had all year--each soft shell was quartered and deep fried in an ethereally-light tempura batter--then intertwined and presented on top of the sauce.

SA--because then I'd hate my life.

[Jinmyo]

Sp K, that's very very interesting. I'm not fond of soft-shell crabs really but this sounds delicious.

[Steve Klc]

Since you're interested Jin, I'll share some more--what I especially liked about the attention Yannick paid to the crabs--which aren't big to begin with--by quartering them was each piece almost looked like a little frog leg--each piece had some body "meat" and could be picked up by a spindly claw or leg. Very cool.

He didn't have to do this--to notch this up to another level--he could have done softshells whole as just about every other high end restaurant does in this area.

But then I would have had to use a knife and fork.

[Jinmyo]

Sp K, thank you.

I like to serve food that can be picked up when possible. And always avoid people needing to use a knife for anything. Fingers, hashi, spoons, forks.

[Steve Martin]

Tommy. It really is 'funny you should ask' about what we drank. I have some old clarets that should be drunk up and I always like red wine with poultry. The sauce would have gone well with a full bodied white, but we had a 1970 Chateau Beau-Site, Saint-Estephe. Very subtle, with some strawberry fruit remaining.

The price of this old beauty? 5GBP

I even took a picture showing one of my wine glasses.

Much more of my amateur cooking and European travels on my website

www.smartco.clara.co.uk