December is a big birthday month: my dad, my father-in-law, and my mother-in-law all have birthdays close together. Well, this year was the big 80th for my father-in-law so we wanted to have a large to-do to celebrate. I offered to cook and outdo myself in every dish I could. I think I succeeded. I also played dress-up and bought myself a chef's jacket with "Chantrelle - FoodPorn.com" on it...That was fun to wear!! The recipes were designed to serve 20. It turns out I over estimated and had a lot of leftovers but that's really not a problem, we had everyone over for lunch the next day! The first 3 courses were things I'd done before and the recipes are already on the site, I've linked to those. The last two courses were new ventures.
Here's the menu with wine pairings:
Ahi Tartare ~ cucumber, basil, pine nuts, flat bread 1998 J. Lassalle, Premier Cru, Brut
Roasted New York Strip Loin (recipe below) ~ herb marinated, wilted frisée 2004 Quintessa, Rutherford Valley
Hazelnut Cake with Poached Pears 1986 Château d'Yquem, Sauternes
The prep-work started the day before. I picked up the 14lb New York Strip Loin from my butcher (special ordered it earlier in the week). I cut the loin in half and then lengthwise so I had four, more manageable roasts. I chopped about 1 cup each of marjoram, thyme and parsley and covered all the roasts in the herbs and olive oil, covered them and refrigerated over night.
That's pretty much all I could do the day before. I did actually make the walnut butter for the Butternut Squash Soup. (1 stick of butter, 1 1/2 walnuts...put it in the food processor until mixed. Wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate)
Saturday morning, 9am, I headed to the farmers market and the chaos of the day began. I picked up my special-ordered 5lbs of ahi...BEAUTIFUL! Along with the veggies, herbs and fruit I needed. Then I went to the local market to pick up what the farmer's market didn't have. Then it was back home to chop chop chop, slice slice slice, mix mix mix.
First thing I needed to get done and out of the way was the hazelnut cake. I'm not a baker, this is not my recipe. I used the recipe from The Paley's Place Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Pacific Northwestwhich is a great cookbook and an excellent place to eat if you find yourself in Portland, OR. The cake was truly a breeze to make, hazelnuts, sugar, yogurt, eggs, vanilla, flour, etc. Once the cakes were out of the oven, I put in the squash to roast for the soup. Each had whole, unpeeled garlic cloves in the cavity and was rubbed with olive oil. They roasted at 350° for about 45-60 minutes. The soup recipe is spelled out well here already along with a picture of the finished soup which I forgot to take on Saturday night! Woops! I bailed on the brown butter sage that I usually put on the soup because I couldn't fry up enough leaves for twenty people and have them all turn out crispy and nice so I chose to leave them off. The pesto and walnut butter provide plenty of flavor on their own. But I'd put the sage on the menu for everyone and they all thought the sage was in there! Power of suggestion! ;-)
I was trying to have as much done in advance as I could. My kitchen is small, my stove is crappy and I had a long list (literally, I had a list taped to the cupboard so I wouldn't forget any elements of the dishes!). Next up, cook the lentils for the Warm Chanterelle Salad. Easy peasy, 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock per 1 cup of lentils, a few peeled, smashed garlic cloves and simmer for 25 minutes. Voíla! Lentils done--one more thing off the list. Here I am hard at work chopping shallots for the salad vinaigrette with my dad looking on saying things like, "Wow, you're not even cutting your fingers, I'm impressed!" Hehe. I put about 1/2 cup of shallots together with the juice of 4 big lemons and set that aside. I whisked the olive oil and salt in right before plating and tossed the spinach into it then. 4:45pm rolls around and my handy-dandy list tells me to put the strip loin into the oven. I took them out of the refrigerator at 2pm to bring them up to room temperature. I put them in roasting pans and put them in the 450° oven for 15 minutes then reduced the temperature to 350° and waited for my thermometer to do its job. I put it in to the center of one of the roasts, set it to beep at 125° and moved along to the next project. Ding-dong, it's 5pm, the guests are here!!
First course is ready to plate. I bought some round cookie cutters to use as molds for the ahi. I had assembled the dish earlier in the afternoon and it was ready to go in the fridge except for the lemon juice and salt which I added at the last minute so as not to have ceviche. Pack the ahi into the molds, remove the mold, top with micro-arugula, sprinkle with finishing salt, add flat bread crackers to the plate...course one is up! The table went silent with the first bite. Success! It paired beautifully with the champagne. Fire course two! I whisked the oil into the lemon-shallot mixture, tossed in the spinach and coated it well. On the plate went a bit of spinach, a spoonful of lentils, 2 slices of lovely grilled chanterelles, a smattering of bacon bits, some finishing salt and off to the table it went. Some of the comments about the salad were things like, "You disguised the meat on that salad as mushrooms amazingly well" (haha) and "The bacon added to the illusion of the meatiness" and "You made that dish up yourself?!" Hey...thanks I think?
Now here's where photos get sparse. Things got crazy. As we were plating--bowling?--the soup, the thermometer beeped on the roast and I had to find a flat surface to let them rest! Oh, MAJOR dinner party tip: hire help! I hired a lovely lady friend to clean up after me. She did all the dishes as they were dirtied and she is my angel forever. I couldn't have done it without her. She delivered to the table as I plated things, love her, love her.
Roasts come out of the oven, onto the cutting boards and get covered in foil to rest for a minimum of 20 minutes. Now, I don't know how long they actually rested because time became a blur by this point. But however long it was they were PERFECT. Pink throughout but warm to the center. Tender as can be (which is good since I don't own steak knives!), juicy juicy juicy. One thick slice per plate on top of some frisée and people were moaning with joy. My cousin told me that he hadn't had beef that good since he was at Commander's Palace in New Orleans years ago. People couldn't stop raving about it. People are still calling me about it! I find it really funny since it's the one dish that was a shot in the dark for me. I had only practiced it once with a small, 3lb loin and had no idea if it was going to work! I guess it did! We took a small intermission here to let the food settle, the wine mellow and it was time to cook the pears. Now, to be honest, I didn't cook the pears. This is my husband's signature dessert and I stay out of it. I know it was Bosc pears, peeled and cut with a apple corer. Those are put into a pan with brandy and port, honey (I picked up some amazing meadowfoam honey from the farmer's market) and the secret ingredient is white truffle honey. There's some cinnamon in there...not sure what else. I'll have the wrangle the recipe from him. But the pears are cooked until soft and then removed from the pan and the sauce is reduced down to a thin syrup.
On the plate went the hazelnut cake, topped with pears, drizzled with syrupy sauce and plopped with freshly whipped cream. Served with this was a 1986 Yquem. Wow...I mean...WOW! I've never had anything like this wine. It was a dessert in itself. Sweet, creamy, musty, fruity, minerally, heavenly. If you ever get the chance, you must experience this sauternes....and check out the cork! People were tipsy on the wine and the food. I truly accomplished my ultimate meal (so far). No one could believe I could produce that from my crappy little kitchen. I just kept saying, "Just think what I could do in a real kitchen!"
One thing I do know from this whole thing...I do not want to be a professional chef. I love to cook. I love food. I do not love standing and chopping for 12 hours at a stretch. I love the result. I love eating. I love making people happy with flavor. But I love it too much for it to be a career. Once the meal was over, people were wandering about the house. One relative went outside, came back in, the back door bumped the recycling bag and all the bottles of the evening went flying...IT'S A PARTY NOW!! Roars of cheers and laughter came out of that one.
If you're wondering what to cook for your Christmas dinner (or any big dinner event), I highly recommend this menu. I'm not kidding when I say people are still talking about it. They're calling me still blissful 2 days later! Make your family and friends happy, cook for them!
As I pointed out in my last article, we were a bit late for porcini season this year. But not so late that we didn't get any at all. We had a couple of beauties! On the first night we didn't have the time or the materials for a barbecue so we just sautéed the porcini in a little olive oil and shallots and tossed it with some farfalle pasta. I'm a big fan of not doing much to the mushrooms and just enjoying their earthy flavors on their own. Day two however allowed for a trip to the store to pick up some mesquite for the barbecue. This is my favorite way to enjoy porcini. Once it was cleaned up, we just sliced it, basted it with olive oil and herbs and grilled to perfection. Once off the grill we squeezed a little bit of lemon juice and sprinkled a little bit of salt on them. Heaven!
We went back to one of our spots thinking we'd probably struck out but I stumbled upon two pretty little friends. The caps were destined for the dehydrator but the stalks were gorgeous grillers.
Having exhausted the porcini stash, we still had an insane number of chanterelles to consume. Along with Thanksgiving leftovers, we had chanterelles cooked in butter on toast. I felt a bit Top Chef-like serving chanterelles and bread two ways (on toast and in stuffing). ;-)
Day three -- or was it day four -- I decided to venture out into the chanterelle territory again. Who knew I missed a whole patch of them!? I had to think of another way to cook them. I thought, "I wonder if they grill well?" Since it's my favorite way to eat porcini we decided to try it. It is now my favorite way to cook chanterelles too!! If you have access to any of these lovely golden fungi, you must make this recipe.
Spinach tossed w/ dressing of: Chopped shallots Lemon juice Olive oil Salt & Pepper
Cook french green lentils in chicken stock w/ a clove of garlic
Slice each chanterelle and half, toss with olive oil and pepper and grill. I used 3 large mushrooms for 2 people.
Chop and cook bacon to make lovely little bacon bits.
Assemble into the most beautiful warm mushroom salad ever created. Spinach first, then lentils, the shroomies, then bacon, then love....love the whole time actually, including with every fabulous bite.
We head up to Mendocino every Thanksgiving. We've been going up for about 10 years. The purpose of the trip is to crawl through the woods looking for fungus. Some years it's quite successful. Other years, not so much. This year we were a bit late for the porcinis. we found a few to grill, and a few to dry, but the real star of this trip was the chanterelle. Day one brought us a basket full along with a couple of coccoras (a mushroom that still makes me nervous to eat!).
I selected a handful of the chanterelles, cleaned and prepped them for wild mushroom stuffing. The recipe I used is based on this Bon Appétit recipe but I've modified it a bit. Firstly, it called for 1 pound of shiitake's and 1 pound of button mushrooms... I had pounds of chanterelles in my fridge! I used about 2-3 pounds of the chanterelles. I put them in the skillet with a stick of butter. I let them cook for quite a while because they had a lot of moisture. I cooked almost all of that moisture away.
Next I added the chopped leek and garlic and let that cook through for about five minutes. Once the leek was softened I added 2 cups of good white wine, a huge handful of rehydrated porcinis (from last year's hunt) and about 1/4 cup of chopped thyme and marjoram from the garden. At this point I don't think there's much I cook without thyme and marjoram in it! The plants are out of control!! Once most of the wine had cooked off, I stirred the whole mixture into a 1lb package of bread cubes (unseasoned). I added the liquid I used to rehydrate the porcinis and then some extra chicken stock because it still seemed a little dry. I put the whole bit into a baking dish and baked it at 350° for about 45 minutes until the edges had some yummy crunchy bits. Meanwhile, I said we found some porcini right? We can't forget about those! We sliced up the stalk, brushed it with some olive oil and grilled it on the Weber with mesquite wood. Meanwhile meanwhile... I roasted a whole chicken in lieu of a turkey since 1: I'm allergic to turkey and 2: there were only three of us. It's a foolproof excellent way to roast a chicken by the way. Take six pats of butter and wiggle them under the skin of the chicken breasts (three for each side). Then take chopped herbs... guess what I used? Yes, marjoram and thyme! Work those under the skin with the butter. Sprinkle the entire bird with salt and rub the entire outside with olive oil. Roasted at 400° for about 40 minutes until the internal temperature is 160°. I love my digital thermometer for this. I just put it in the chicken when I first put it in the oven, and set the alarm to beep when it hits 155° so I know I have a couple minutes left to finish the rest of the dinner prep.
It was a very successful Thanksgiving endeavor. The final meal: roast chicken, wild mushroom stuffing, grilled porcini, Caesar salad and cranberry relish.
We had three bottles of Syrah to drink: '03 Cornas from France, '00 Hardy's from Australia, and '02 Ridge from here in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I wanted to make a special dinner for our cousin's birthday, but we don't really eat much meat so I had to find something involving fish that would go with Syrah. I think this worked!
This recipe is for 6 servings. 1/4-1/2 cup chopped shallots 1 head frisée, roughly chopped 1/2 c. chicken stock
Sauté the shallots in olive oil until soft. Add the chicken stock and reduce by half. Add the frisée, and briefly toss to coat with the shallots and olive oil. Remove it from the heat and put a lid on it to keep it warm and wilt the frisée. Set aside. 1 cup red wine (I used Syrah to match what we'd be drinking with the meal) 1/4 cup chopped shallots 1 stick butter
Sauté shallots in olive oil until soft. Add red wine and bring to boil. Boil until it's reduced to a syrupy sauce. Turn off heat and whisk in 1/2-3/4 of a stick of butter, one pat at a time.
2 1/2 pounds center cut salmon, cut into six pieces 12 slices prosciutto 1/4 cup minced parsley 1/4 cup minced thyme Mix the parsley and thyme together. Press the herb mixture into the salmon fillets. Wrap two pieces of prosciutto around each of the herbed salmon fillets.
Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. My 12 inch copper pan was big enough to do three salmon fillets at a time. Place salmon fillets in the pan with a little olive oil and cook about three minutes on each side.
To plate, put one tablespoon of red wine sauce on the plate. Top with the wilted endive and shallots. Place the fish on top of that. Squeeze a little lemon juice on the fish. Garnish with something pretty and green, I used micro arugula.
Voilà... delicious!! It was so good in fact, I forgot to take a picture before I dug in! Oops!!
This is a quick and easy, tasty mexican-style dinner. Outside of the guacamole, it's all ingredients that are easy to keep on hand and you can use fish, shrimp or chicken...even beef I guess although I've never tried that.
Put 2 dried ancho chiles in a dish w/ enough boiling water to cover them. Let them rehydrate for about 10 minutes.
In a blender: 1/2 onion 2 garlic cloves juice of 1 lemon salt 3T or so olive oil 2-3 rehydrated ancho chiles
Puree. If it's too thick, add a little of the water used to rehydrate the chiles.
Pour this over 1 lb of fish of your choice, I used mahi mahi, cut into 1-inch cubes. Let it sit for at least 30min.
Dump the whole thing, sauce and fish, into a pan on medium-high heat. Cook until fish is done.
Serve w/ tortillas, rice, beans, guacamoles and garnish w/ some limes (the lime juice makes it).
The Waffle Recipe I Thought Was Already On the Site
Imagine my surprise when I went to link to my waffle recipe and it wasn't on the site! I've got pictures of the waffles on the site, you can get a coffee mug with them on it but I'd never put up the recipe! D'oh!
I make a double batch of waffles and freeze the leftovers to throw in the toaster for breakfast...Y'know, like Eggos but GOOD! I always have my waffles topped with berries and fresh whipped cream. This is one time where, season be damned, I'm having berries...wherever they're from!
2 c. flour 1 Tbl Baking Powder 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 c. Buttermilk 4 eggs, separated 1/2 c. melted butter 2 Tbl. syrup a little cinnamon a little vanilla Stir dry ingredients together. Combine egg yolks and buttermilk. Add egg yolk mixture to dry ingredients. Stir in slightly cooled butter. Add syrup and vanilla. Fold in eggwhites, leaving little fluffs of them showing in the batter.
I make ahi tartare almost every Wednesday. It's different every week depending on what's in season, or what I have in the fridge. Every week it's good. This week's was amazing!!
3/4 lb sashimi-grade ahi tuna, diced 1 shallot, minced 1/2 Japanese cucumber, diced 1 clove garlic, finely minced 3 T parsley, chopped 2 T basil, chopped 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts juice of one lemon 2-3 T extra virgin olive oil (I use Stonehouse House blend) 1 teaspoons chili oil (I use Stonehouse here as well) Shinkai deep sea salt to taste (from The Meadow) Micro arugula as garnish Cyprus Silver as finishing salt (also from The Meadow)
Almost everything can be mixed together somewhat in advance (not too much mind you, you are working with raw fish) and refrigerated. The lemon and salt however shouldn't be added until right before serving so as not to cure the fish.
I had one large zucchini left from my dad's garden. I'd already made zucchini bread, I'd already frozen a bunch of it for zucchini bread in the winter, I'd sautéed, I'd put it in pasta, I needed something new! Well, there's my tried and true 'mashing things together and frying into a cake technique'... I'll try that! It worked!
Shred one large zucchini, salt, and place in a colander to drain.
Mix together: 2 minced garlic cloves 2 T. marjoram 3 T. Parsley juice of half a lemon 1 t. lemon zest 1 egg
After about 20 or 30 minutes of it being in the strainer, squeeze the zucchini out with paper towels. Get as much liquid out as you can. Mix the zucchini thoroughly into garlic/herb/egg mixture.
Now to the tried-and-true portion of the method. Heat about 1/4 inch of olive oil until it's a very hot but not smoking. Take a small handful of the zucchini mixture in your hands, flatten slightly and gently place it in the hot oil. Don't touch it or move it until the underside is very brown therefore holding together the fritter. Carefully turn it over and repeat! Remove from oil and place on paper towel to drain.
I cooked the fish very simply. Salt and pepper on the fillet, dust with semolina flour, pan fry in butter.
I squeezed a little lemon juice over both the fish and the fritters and topped with chopped fresh basil. I sprinkled it with a little Big Sur Sea salt I just discovered in my pantry!
Last night for dinner I felt like being creative. When I started, I didn't know what I was going to end up with. I began by throwing some sushi rice rice cooker, I didn't know why but I thought I might end up using it. I ended up with this amazing dish, here's how.
For "sauce" 2 shallots, minced 1T dashi miso (already has the bonito, etc in it) 1T grated ginger 1T soy sauce juice of 1 lemon 2T rice wine vinegar 1/4c. sake
Put this all into a small pan, bring to a boil, and let it reduce slightly. Stir in a handful of chopped parsley and cilantro. Set aside.
I took two gorgeous pieces of fish, one piece of ahi and one piece of hamachi, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and seared them over high heat.
While those were searing, I grabbed a couple of scoops of the sushi rice out of the rice cooker. I mixed with that about a tablespoon of Nori Komi Furikaki rice seasoning. All it is is a mixture of sesame seed, salt, sugar, and seaweed and I love it! I got my hands wet so the rice wouldn't stick and formed thin patties of rice and laid them, carefully, in a pan with about 1/4 inch a very hot olive oil. Don't move them! when you can see that they're very brown around the edges, then carefully flip them over to brown the other side. When crispy, remove the rice cakes and place them on a plate with paper towels to drain off the oil.
I assembled all this on the plate topping the crispy rice cakes with micro arugula greens that had just a hint of rice vinegar on them. Sliced the ahi and hamachi and topped with the sauce and then made a little side of cucumber sunomono salad (thinly sliced cucumber with some seasoned rice vinegar).
I thought this turned out amazingly well. My husband couldn't stop raving about it all night! Let me know if it works for you too!
A mishmash of things from the fridge and the garden turned out to be a really wonderful dinner.
1-2oz. pancetta, diced small (optional if you're vegetarian, required if you're not!!) 1 leek, white and pale green parts only, chopped
Sautée these in a pan with olive oil until they are caramelized.
(Make the pesto while you're waiting, recipe below. And put on a pot of water for the pasta!)
Add about 1/4 cup sweet vermouth to deglaze, and let this reduced down until syrupy.
Add: 1 cup diced summer squash (I used round zucchini) 2 minced garlic cloves
When squash is softened, add: 2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
Immediately turn off heat!
This gives the sweet, richness of the caramelization but the freshness of summer tomatoes. If you turn off the heat it doesn't break down the tomatoes but there's enough heat left to warm them up with the dish.
Parsley-pecan pesto:
1 bunch parsley, stems removed 3/4 cup pecans 1/4 c lemon juice (I like lemony pesto!) 2 garlic cloves salt and pepper
Run all this in the food processor and add olive oil (while the food processors still running) until it's the texture of pesto! I probably use just shy of 1/4 cup of oil. Toss the pesto into your cooked pasta (I used linguine) and top with spoonfuls of the tomato leek mixture.
This turned out even better than I expected it to. I served it with a Ridge Wines 2005 Syrah/Grenache and it went beautifully.
I am picking a basket of cherry tomatoes every other day from one plant. I eat as many as I can but needed another form of consumption. This recipe could easily be for just a bowl of gazpacho but since I had 8 people to divide this between, it became an amuse bouche.
It yielded just shy of 2 cups:
2 baskets cherry tomatoes
Puree in food processor then strain through a chinois.
Rinse food processor and puree: 1 handful of parsley 1 garlic clove 1 shallot juice of 1 lemon pinch or 2 of sea salt 2 T olive oil
Add strained tomatoes back in (discard skins and seeds), zing in processor.
Chill.
Slice a jalepeno and let it steep in some olive oil for as long as you've got (I let mine sit about 3 hours, room temp). Strain into squeeze bottle.
Peel and slice cucumber into sticks. Mince some basil.
For presentation: Put a cucumber slice into a champagne flute. Pour in gazpacho mixture. Drizzle a little jalapeno oil on top. Drop a little minced basil on top.
Updated Aug 3, 2009 Cook 1/2 cup of quinoa in stock (I use chicken stock) according to package instructions.
While that's cooking, mix vinaigrette together: 3T White wine vinegar 2 minced shallots 2 minced green onions a handful of chopped parsley salt and pepper
NEW ingredients!: Sauté 1 small chopped leek and 1 small chopped fennel bulb, add 2T white wine when soft and cook off. Add to vinaigrette mixture.
Once the quinoa is tender, mix it into the vinaigrette mixture.
Refrigerate until cool.
Mix in one egg as a binder and refrigerate again for at least 20 min. or so.
Heat 1/4 inch of olive oil in a pan until quite hot.
Form quinoa mixture into patties (as thin as you can make them without them falling apart). Carefully place into hot oil and let fry until bottom is crispy and brown. Don't try to turn them over too soon or they'll fall apart, they need to crisp up to hold together!
Turn and do the same to the other side.
Remove from oil and place on paper towels.
Serve topped with something yummy. I topped them with an heirloom tomato and basil salad.
Heat up a grill or broiler and put on it: 1/2 onion, unpeeled 2-3 inch piece of unpeeled ginger
Grill until skin is blackened. Meanwhile, in a stock pot heat up: 6 cups chicken stock four cloves one star anise 2 teaspoons sugar one tablespoon fish sauce the grilled onion peeled and quartered the grilled ginger cut into chunks a handful of cilantro on the stems the stems of the shiitakes you're about to sauté
Let all that simmer together for about an hour (but don't boil!)
Put a pot of water on because you need to boil rice noodles (1 lb or so) and rinse them well in cold water after they're cooked.
Now the fun part, the many toppings you get to put on at the table. Here's what I used: Sliced shiitakes sautéed in olive oil (with a little salt) Chopped green onions Cilantro leaves Parsley leaves Limes Chopped chives Sliced jalapeno Sriracha (a.k.a. rooster sauce)
Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. Salt to taste.
In a large bowl place rice noodles, poor broth over them, top with your favorite protein (we used seared, local albacore) and serve alongside the many bowls of toppings.
This is a really fun dish for kids because they get to top it with whatever they like. And a really fun dish for adults because you get to control the heat level with the jalapenos and Sriracha.
I have owed a recipe for this to many people for way too long. So finally here it is. It's not very specific, it changes with the ingredients in the fridge and the garden, but this will give you the gist.
First off, you need a pan that can go in the oven. Metal handle that can take 425° heat. My frittatas have improved greatly since I got these. I use the 12" skillet for anywhere from 6-10 eggs. It is so nonstick, stuff flies out if I'm not careful! I love these pans.
OK, merch promotion aside. Recipe time.
Preheat oven to 425°
1 large shallot or 1/3 yellow onion, chopped
Sauté in butter and/or olive oil (I use half butter/half oil a lot)
When shallot/onion is softened add one clove minced garlic.
From here on out, this varies week to week but if I'm going shopping specifically for frittata this is what I do.
Add to pan 1/2 bunch dinosaur kale or chard, roughly chopped Salt greens in pan
While the greens are sautéing, beat eggs (I usually use two eggs per person as long as there aren't too many people!!)
Add to eggs a handful of chopped parsley, some marjoram, and whatever other herbs you feel like adding, you don't have to add anything else really. Today I added a handful of fresh basil. Beat in salt and pepper.
Once the greens are cooked (I cook them to the point that I would eat them on their own) evenly pour the egg mixture over the top. Stir around as needed to cover the greens so they won't burn in the oven.
Reduce the heat to medium low and let the eggs cook till they are almost set on top. When there's just thin layer of uncooked egg left, add grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to the top of the half that's not mine (blech!)and put the whole thing in the oven.
Bake for 17 minutes. Serve with toast, juice, and a wonderful mocha made with freshly roasted coffee beans (okay, that last one's just for our house!)
I was putting pictures of this dish on Twitter, but decided it was so good I needed to put a detailed recipe up.
Take one can garbanzo beans, rinse, and stir in two or three tablespoons lemon juice, a minced garlic clove, and some good olive oil. Set that aside and let it marinate for as long as you have time for.
Put 1 1/2 cups quinoa, 2 cups water, and some salt in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the quinoa is tender.
Finely chop one medium leek and sauté it in a tablespoon of butter.
Once the leeks soften a bit add about 1/4 cup of stock. I used chicken, but vegetable stock would work just as well and keep this dish vegetarian. Simmer the leeks in the stock until the stock is just about gone. Turn off the heat and add the garbanzo bean mixture, to chopped green onions, handful of chopped parsley, salt and pepper.
Stir in the cooked quinoa and season to taste.
I had two servings of the quinoa. I think it turned out great! It could've been its own meal, but I picked up sand dabs at the farmers market so I fried those up in butter and served those alongside the quinoa.
Surprisingly, this large, layered tower remained upright long enough to take a picture and carry it to the table before it slowly got leany and eventually toppled. It's a recipe loosely based on one from On the Line, Inside the World of Le Bernadin. I felt that I wouldn't like certain aspects of the recipe (I'm sure I'd love it if Eric Ripert prepared it for me!). I, however, didn't want to mix mayonnaise into my fresh, local crab.
So what the tower consists of is: - One layer fresh crabmeat - One layer sliced avocado - A drizzle of jalapeno emulsion - One thinly pressed, chilled, cut out piece of mashed potato ( mixed with lime juice, jalapeno emulsion, olive oil, salt, and pepper) - One more layer fresh crabmeat - One more layer sliced avocado - Another drizzle of jalapeno emulsion
- Atop all that I took some of the mashed potato and put it into a frying pan with some olive oil. I thought I would get some sort of potato chip like thing but that's not exactly what happened. The potatoes dissolved into the oil but I just left them there until they were brown and got a very thin chip-like topping.
At the very top was an onion relish that was pretty close to what was in the book: 2 tablespoons red onion 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar --let that sit in the fridge for two hours
I drained off the vinegar and added: A teaspoon or two jalapeno emulsion A minced shallot The juice of two limes A drizzle olive oil Salt and pepper
I went to the store to get the ingredients for this great salmon recipe in my On the Line, Inside the World of Le Bernardin cookbook and, oddly, my fish monger had no salmon! So this went from a Le Bernadin recipe to a Le Bernadin-inspired recipe. This was night two of my exploration of the new cookbook (this is night one).
It is alternating layers of trout, apples, and smoked salmon. It's topped with a salad of julienned apples, celery, celery leaf, parsley, and lemon zest tossed with lemon juice and olive oil. The whole thing is drizzled with a serrano pepper emulsion.
I'd like to try it again with the proper ingredients, but this was amazingly good.
So, I'd a made my fish and couscous dish enough times now that I felt I needed to move on. I still bought some wonderful, local flounder at the farmers market and like the preparation of it dusted and semolina and pan fried but it needed to be reworked. I was losing interest. I picked up some mustard greens, which I don't usually buy and I'm not sure why. Dinosaur kale is really my favorite so it was my go-to green. I changed it up this week. I started by sautéing some shallots, then adding garlic and the mustard greens. I sprinkled about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar into that and about a cup or pre-cooked lentils (1/2 cup dried; I'd made lentils the night before and had some left over).
While that was cooking down, I chopped up half the cucumber (I took out most of the seeds) and blended it with a cup of plain yogurt and a minced garlic clove, lemon juice, salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper.
I prepared the fish the way I typically do. I dusted it with salt, pepper, and semolina flower and fried in butter.
To plate I put a mound of the mustard-lentil mixture, placed the fish on that, and then poured the raita mixture on top.
I picked up some snapper at the farmers market the other day with the plans to make fish tacos. When I went to actually prepare the fish tacos I realized I'd forgotten to go to the store to get anything else for them such as tortillas, salsa, etc. So I had to move on to plan B. I whipped up a fish soup. I, unfortunately, spaced out taking a picture of it but I did note down the recipe:
1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 smallish fennel, 2 stalks celery -- all diced or chopped Throw all those in the pan and sauté them until they are soft.
Add 1/4 teaspoon saffron, 1 bay leaf, 2 diced tomatoes, and a pinch of chili flakes. Let those cook together a few minutes.
Add 2 cups white wine and let that cook until it reduces down to about 1 cup.
Pour in 1 1/2 quarts chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add 3/4 pounds snapper cut into bite size pieces and let that simmer until the snapper is cooked.
Serve the soup poured over garlic toasts and garnish with pesto (I made my pesto with marjoram, parsley, basil, garlic, pecans, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper)
Wednesday nights are my night to experiment with different ingredients within a similar dish. I get Ahi at the farmers market and see what I can dice together. All the ingredients except the salt, pepper, pine nuts and nanami togarashi are from the farmer's market or my garden.
Tonight: Ahi (obviously) 1 clove garlic 1 medium shallot 1 avocado 1/2 of a cucumber a handful of toasted pine nuts juice of one lemon 4 baby green onions a handful of basil from the garden a few sprigs of parsley (also from the garden) yummy olive oil salt and pepper to taste nanami togarashi sprinkled on top
Everything minced or diced accordingly.
Mix, eat on toast and love life.
September 24, 2008 This week, and didn't realize that I didn't have many crunchy things to mix into my tartare. So what I put in it this week where shallots, avocado, celery, pine nuts, and of course olive oil, salt and pepper, and I topped it with nanami togarashi as usual. What I did have this week was another Brandywine tomato from the garden to accompany the ahi. Wednesdays are yummy.
December is a big birthday month: my dad, my father-in-law, and my mother-in-law all have birthdays close together. Well, this year was the big 80th for my father-in-law so we wanted to have a large to-do to celebrate. I offered to cook and outdo myself in every dish I could. I think I succeeded. I also played dress-up and bought myself a chef's jacket with "Chantrelle - FoodPorn.com" on it...That was fun to wear!! The recipes were designed to serve 20. It turns out I over estimated and had a lot of leftovers but that's really not a problem, we had everyone over for lunch the next day! The first 3 courses were things I'd done before and the recipes are already on the site, I've linked to those. The last two courses were new ventures.
First thing I needed to get done and out of the way was the hazelnut cake. I'm not a baker, this is not my recipe. I used the recipe from The Paley's Place Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Pacific Northwest
which is a great cookbook and an excellent place to eat if you find yourself in Portland, OR. The cake was truly a breeze to make, hazelnuts, sugar, yogurt, eggs, vanilla, flour, etc. 
This is a quick and easy, tasty mexican-style dinner. Outside of the guacamole, it's all ingredients that are easy to keep on hand and you can use fish, shrimp or chicken...even beef I guess although I've never tried that.
A mishmash of things from the fridge and the garden turned out to be a really wonderful dinner.
I went to the store to get the ingredients for this great salmon recipe in my 
