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The BF and I had a weekend-long antipasto. Salumi, olives, bean salad, pickles, cheese. I picked up this French brie:
It was on the cheese plate at the restaurant in Dallas (TX) where I did my practicum. I really don't remember the consistency being light and fluffy. It tasting like Brie icing.
Yummy but missing something.
I got this great recipe for a roast leg of lamb from Sue at SuDan Farms. The recipe is called, "The Best Leg of Lamb Ever," and I'm inclined to agree.
The meat is brined then schmeared, tied, seared, roasted and rested. (Sounds like a kinky date, no?)
Here's the brine:
two quarts water
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar
8 garlc cloves, crushed (thrifty shopper that I am, I use the garlic bits generated when trimming the head for roasting to make the brine).
Brine for two - four hours.
Here's the schmear:
One head garlic, with the top cut off. I use the discarded garlic clove tops for the brine.
Drizzle with OO and a pinch of salt. Wrap in foil (or get out that fancy garlic roaster -- you know you have one) and roast at 350 for 30 minutes or so. I usually use the toaster oven or roast garlic when the oven is on for something else.
Wipe the inside of the brined meat with the schmear. Using kitchen twine, tie up the meat. Sear on all sides until it has nice color.
Pop into a 400 degree oven for about 8 minutes per pound. My leg was 3.5 pounds and I roasted it for 30 minutes. I pulled it when the internal temp was between 115 and 120. Rest the meat for a minimum of ten minutes.
This is pr obably the most important part. Lamb must be pulled under temp and rested up to temp. (In normal person parlance, lamb should be baked until the internal temp is 5 -10 degrees under ideal. The meat should rest for an additional 10 - 15 minutes until it upcooks -- or carryover cooks -- to the desired temp.) If you are cooking for a mixed crowd, rare and mid-rare meat eaters as well as well-done fools, a roast is perfect. Rare in the middle and well at the edges.
Snip the strings, slice, and serve.
It was marvelous with the Kabocha squash risotto and a roasted beet, goat cheese and greens salad (with a simple vinaigrette made with rice wine vin. I'd have used white balsamic if I'd had any).
I keep intending to take more photographs of the finished product but unfortunately I end up eating first, making pictures later.
Take my word for it, the meal was lovely.
xoxo
nancy
I woke up today with the covers in a heap and my mind in a jumble. Crying and angry all at once. Gnashing my teeth, still crying.
Damn! It's time for my thrice (or twice) per year bout of PMS. Grrrrr.
I can't stay in bed all day and cry. No. So I did what any normal person would do. I put a clean hanky in my pocket, put Belmont's dress on, and went walkin.'
Years ago, when I moved to Portland, I chose the NW because it was close to restaurants, bars, grocery stores etc. It also had Washington Park as a back yard.
I walk there about three times a week. The park grounds me. I've never lived in a city that speaks to my psyche like Portland. It sounds so corny, but this city sings to my soul.
Lame poetics aside, I will battle this hormonal monster with walking, kombucha, and food.
What am I making?
Lamb and egg pizza.
...But first...
Weekly Dutch Baby pancake with Priscilla!
Photo: Priscilla Robertson
Oh and the pizza was OK.
I should have put the eggs on when I put the other toppings on. Live and learn.
xoxo
hormonally re-balancing
nancy
The new fella brought me two Kabocha squash yesterday (along with beets, and chippolini onions). I love Kabocha squash, it reminds me of this great guy named Greg Bussey that I worked with in Dallas. He used to make this crazy squash soup in gigantic military pans heaped high with cut squash and mirepoix. Good stuff it was.
Anyway. I got four pounds of creamy, sweet flesh from two squash. I use d about a cup-n-a-half or so for the risotto which barely dented the fleshy, orange, squash pile.
Kabocha Squash Risotto
Serves two as a meal or four as a side.
1/2 cup Arborio rice
1-1/2 cups chicken stock
1-1/2 cups Kabocha squash flesh (roast squash for 45 minutes, cool, and peel hard shell away)
1 ea shallot, finely chopped
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 pound shitaki mushrooms (about two hands full)
2 Tbsp white wine (someting dry)
1/2 cup grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese.
Gently cook the shallots until soft. Deglaze pressure cooker with white wine. Add rice and cook for 5 minutes or so. Add chicken stock. Seal pressure cooker (or continue to cook risotto your own way). Cook on high for 6 minutes.
While the rice cooks, saute the shitake mushrooms in the butter. Set aside.
When the rice is finished, add squash flesh, mushrooms and half of the grated cheese.
Let it heat up again, garnish with grated cheese, and serve.
I'm making it with a roaster garlic rubed boned leg of lamb for dinner tomorrow.
Sounds yummy, no?
This is what one does with an abundunce of green tomatoes.
Quick Green Tomato Pickles
2 1/2 pounds green tomatoes (sliced less than 1/4 inch thick)
1 1/2 pounds (about five medium) white or yellow onions (I julienned them)
1 1/2 tspn mustard seed
2 Tbsp pickling salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups cider vinegar
Combine tomatoes, onion, and mustard seed in a crock or large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix gently. Let stand for eight to 12 hours.
Drain. Pack into jars.
Combine sugar and vinegar. Stir until sugar dissolves. Pour vinegar/sugar solution over the pickles. Cover and refridgerate. Hold for 24 hours before eating. These pickles will keep for 6 - 10 months.
The best combination is this pickle with pate of any kind. Really, really delicious.
Love & pickles,
Nancy
I've got a lot of food learnin' to do.
Although I reviewed restaurants and wrote about food for some ten years, (and have cooked professionally for another eight) I'm thrilled that there are dishes, and cuisines, about which I'm ignorant. Take Fegatini. Seared chicken livers, onion sauce, horseradish and apple.
Chicken livers? Huh??? No, really. It's amazing. Freaking delicious. My friend Spike made it for me the other night and I loved it so I made it for my mom. We had it on a night that my sister had other plans for dinner. (Anne doesn't like liver the way my mom and I do).
I love this dish because I didn't know that pureed, cooked onions would taste so good with liver, horseradish and apples. I wonder what other secrets Italian cuisine holds for me?
Knowing nothing more than the spelling of the dish, I set out to find a recipe to use as a guide. The one I chose was written by Mario Batali. He was a badass cook way before he was a famous, jolly, and badass cook. His recipes are solid and well-written (even tho' he's famous and no longer has to be a good cook).
Anyway, this is my take on Spike's take on Mario Batali's:
Fegatini con Cipolla e Cren.
1 pound chicken livers
10 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
+/- 2 cups Reisling (I used late harvest reisling)
1 pound Cippolini onions (or sub any yellow onion) cleaned (cippolini) or roughly chopped.
2 Tbsp XVOO
2 Tbsp Brandy
2 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup good chicken stock (Mario uses brown chx stock, I u sed regular, fresh stock)
Garnish:
6 Tbsp horseradish sauce (I just used Beaver brand creamy horseradish)*
1/2 ea Granny Smith apple, brunoise.
Linguine pasta to serve four
Salt TT
Marinate cleaned chicken livers in wine, peppercorns, and bay leaves for 2 - 6 hours.
Saute onions in olive oil until soft. Add water to cover by 1/2 and simmer for 5 minutes until soft. If using cippolinis cook until falling apart. Season with salt ver y sparingly. Drain and reserve juice. Puree onions in a blender until smooth and saucy. Return to pan and hold warm until ready to plate. Note: I added ba ck most of the water as the sauce thickened.
Cook pasta while you saute chicken livers in butter until fully caramelized (see photo). Deglaze the pan with Brandy and cook down until a light sauce forms. Season.
Assemble the dish. Place pasta on the plate, top with the onion sauce. Top with chicken livers and drizzle the pan juices atop the liver. Add dabs of horseradish and finish with a garnish of brunoise Granny Smith apple.
Like so:
* If you want to make your own horse sauce, grate horseradish, (on the bias so it looks like a big pencil), then add it to vinegar; 1/2 cup of hourseradish to 2 Tbsp vinegar, and a pinch of salt.
Ciao From Olympia, WA.
xoxo Nancy
This weekend, I'm with the family up in Olympia. And I'm wearing a wool sweater. The leaves change earlier here than in Portland although it's only 120 miles away. <sigh> I miss Portland when I'm away.
But Family Matters so I'm in Oly making tomato juice, doing laundry (yes, aged 49 and still doing laundry at Mom's), cooking dinner and making soup
Before I left, I picked up a Delicata squash from the farmers market and got a Turban squash from one of the women at work. I roasted 'em:
And made soup base. Four quarts of soup base. Just Add Cream and Sauteed Shitaki Mushrooms. Oh is it delish.
Then w e made tomato juice. Then we made Bloody Mary's.
This may be my best batch of tomato juice yet. I had about a gallon of cut up tomatoes; plum, Sweet Million, and Sungold. Then I chopped one onion, and about 4 carrots from the garden. Added about 1 tbsp salt and a dash or so of vinegar. Oooooo is it delicious.
Cheers from Olympia.
Delicata squash is probably my favorite Fall squash. The flavor is delicate, and the size is a perfect side dish for two or a meal for one.
I roasted one yesterday and accidentally left it in the toaster oven. For four hours. The oven was on a timer so it didn't bake for the entire time. Still, it looked un-lovely. Judge for yourself:
So the soup is really quite fabulous. Here's the recipe:
Delicata squash soup with Garlic and Chanterelle Mushrooms
1 ea Delicata squash
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
1 ea onion roughly chopped
1 ea butternut (yellow) squash, medium dice
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 loosely packed cups of julienne chanterelle mushrooms
1 T butter
1 T maple syrup
salt TT
XVOO
Split the Delicata squash the long way and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Drizzle the empty cavity with maple syrup and butter. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until tender.
Saute onion until translucent. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add chopped yellow squash and garlic. Return to boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
Saute mushrooms in olive oil until lightly cooked, not browned (you want to bring out the flavor, not caramelize). Cover and set aside.
Using a stick (immersion) blender, process the soup until smooth. You can use a stationary blender but I prefer the stick.
Add sauteed mushrooms and any juice in the pan. Correct seasoning. Add cream, and serve.
I used scallion for garnish but you could use anything.
Squash is so much fun to play with. Peel it, rough chop it, and braise it with stock and mirepoix. Add a protein, curry or sage or any heavy spice and maybe some cream and you're set. Better yet, check out Mark Bittman's story in last Sunday's NYTimes. It was the inspiration for this soup.
Love in Squash
XOXO
Nancy
