Ever since the halcyon days in Marin, we have been hunting it: the elusive Porcetta. One day, at the Corte Madera mall, we were ravenous and had not packed a lunch. We stopped by A.G. Ferrari Foods, which specializes in Italian food. There's a fuzzy memory of wanting to make Bucatini All'Amatriciana and we needed the bucatini (spaghetti straws) and guanciale (unsmoked, cured pig jowls). This isn't the recipe that we used, but it's a standard dish out of Amatrice, Lazio, Italy and it'squick meal, even if two of the ingredients won't be found at the mega-mart. Ferrari's had them both, but what really got us was the sandwich that we devoured made of Porcetta thinly-sliced on foccacia with arugula and a garlic aioli. Out of this world and we've been looking for Porcetta ever since.
Because we didn't really know what it was, we kept looking in the pancetta/prosciutto section of the markets. Once we came to understand that Porcetta is a loin wrapped in pig belly, we figured that we'd just have to make it ourselves. We chose this Porcetta recipe and only cut back on the red pepper flakes by half. It turned out plenty hot enough (almost too hot) and the taste was beautiful. Peta didn't care for the skin, perhaps because it was not crispy enough? Next time (yes, next time), we'll pull the meat at 130 and crank the heat back up to 500 F to re-crisp the skin. The first 40 minutes at 500F might not have done it. Oh, the first knot that Jim made was a slip knot that he had learned how to make for the guy wires for the tent while camping in Western Australia. Cool!
We chose to make the roast for Jim's dad Jim Sr.'s 65th birthday. Although not a "foodie", he is usually pretty game to try new things after some brown likker. We plied him with Makers Mark and paired the Porcetta with buttermilk mashed potatoes and skillet greens (a mixture of beet greens, chard and mustard greens) and finished with a crummy cherry pie from Albertsons and decent Breyers vanilla ice-cream. Happy 65th to dad!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Eggs Cole
The other day we visited with our friends Chris and Monica. They made
Eggs Cole is a mish-mash of different Eggs Benedict versions. If you had Eggs Florentine but replaced the spinach with arugula and Eggs Blackstone but you replaced the "streaky bacon" with pancetta and 86'd the tomato you would have Eggs Cole. We used San Luis Obispo sourdough wheat for the English muffins, so the lineage to the Eggs Benedict is pretty tenuous, but they you go. It's not as far as our invention, Eggs Merci, is from its progenitor. So, to recap:
Eggs Cole
Jim and Peta
PS: We've had to look up the variations so much that we're just going to list them below
- Bloody Marys with fresh tomato and celery with pepper vodka
- Mimosas with fresh squeezed orange juice
- Damned good coffee
- A dish that Monica dubbed "Eggs Cole" after our little guy
Eggs Cole is a mish-mash of different Eggs Benedict versions. If you had Eggs Florentine but replaced the spinach with arugula and Eggs Blackstone but you replaced the "streaky bacon" with pancetta and 86'd the tomato you would have Eggs Cole. We used San Luis Obispo sourdough wheat for the English muffins, so the lineage to the Eggs Benedict is pretty tenuous, but they you go. It's not as far as our invention, Eggs Merci, is from its progenitor. So, to recap:
Eggs Cole
- San Luis Obispo sourdough wheat
- Pancetta
- Wilted Arugula
- Poached (or over-easy) Eggs
- Hollandaise sauce [we will get Monica's recipe since it is better than ours and seems easier]
Jim and Peta
PS: We've had to look up the variations so much that we're just going to list them below
- Eggs Florentine substitutes spinach for the ham.[8][9][10] Older versions of eggs Florentine add spinach to poached or shirred eggs Mornay – eggs covered in Mornay sauce.[11]
- Eggs Royal includes chicken livers
- Eggs Hemingway (also known as Eggs Royale, Eggs Pacifica, Eggs Montreal) substitutes salmon for the ham. This is a common variation found in Australia and New Zealand.
- Eggs Neptune or Crab Benedict or Eggs Chesapeake substitutes crabmeat for the ham.
- Eggs Hussarde substitutes Holland rusks for the English muffin and adds Marchand de Vin sauce.[13][14][15]
- Eggs Sardou substitutes artichoke bottoms and crossed anchovy fillets for the English muffin and ham, then tops the hollandaise sauce with chopped ham and a truffle slice. The dish was created at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans in honor of the French playwright Victorien Sardou.[16][17][18] A more widespread version of the dish starts with a base of creamed spinach, substitutes artichoke bottoms for the English muffin, and drops the ham.[13][19][20]
- Country Benedict, sometimes known as Eggs Beauregard, replaces the English muffin, ham and hollandaise sauce with a biscuit, sausage patties, and country gravy. The poached eggs are replaced with eggs fried to choice.[24][25][26]
- Irish Benedict replaces the ham with corned beef hash[27] or Irish bacon.[28][29][30]
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
A Crown Not Fit for a King
This past weekend, we invited a co-worker of Peta's and his wife and young son over for a dinner. We traveled to nearby Arroyo Grande to check out the local butcher shop and to purchase a replacement honing steel. Dangerous dull knives be gone! They didn't have pork shanks, although they thought that they did in the freezer, for a dish that we have made before called Stinchetti di Maiale Arrosto (Roast Pork Shanks) then they didn't have duck legs (for some sort of confit over bitter greens) because they only get Muscovy breasts.
But they did have rib roast, so we decided to do a standing rib roast. Jim used this recipe and sort of blew it in two ways. When we couldn't find the kosher salt and Peta asked, "More salt than that?" and Jim said, "Does the Pope shit in the woods?", it was profane and wrong. Too much salt. Then, because we started early and later than expected, turning the heat down to 300 F for 4 hours rather than 325 for 3 hours was not nearly low enough. The meat was tender, but over-cooked. Not by much, but over-cooked none the less.
The two pluses were that 1) we had wanted to use a coffee rub on meat for a while and the flavor was good and and 2) we eschewed the vanilla in the recipe because there was no way that either of us would add vanilla to a rib roast. No &%*^ way!
As for the accompaniments, there were issues there too. For the first time in a while, we have a TV. We've been watching a bit (too much) and on the food network, it's been "gastrique this" and "gastrique that". We finally looked it up and realized that a gastrique is what we do every time we make BBQ sauce. Who knew? So we found a recipe for Skillet Greens with Crispy Shallots and Cider Gastrique. We used beet greens so that the cooking time would be less than say, collard greens, and so that we'd have the beets themselves to roast with thyme. Unfortunately, it takes a lot more greens that the greens from two bunches of beets to serve four people. Another mis-step.
To accompany the meal, Josh and Katie brought a smooth, aged (2006?) BV cabernet sauvignon. We also cracked a magnum of what was most likely a Louis Martini Monterosso cab that Jim's brother bought (stole for) him a few years back. No label but it was good. We only had a glass each so we just polished it off last night with some friends over beautiful big burgers.
And that's all we've got to say about that.
Jim and Peta
But they did have rib roast, so we decided to do a standing rib roast. Jim used this recipe and sort of blew it in two ways. When we couldn't find the kosher salt and Peta asked, "More salt than that?" and Jim said, "Does the Pope shit in the woods?", it was profane and wrong. Too much salt. Then, because we started early and later than expected, turning the heat down to 300 F for 4 hours rather than 325 for 3 hours was not nearly low enough. The meat was tender, but over-cooked. Not by much, but over-cooked none the less.
The two pluses were that 1) we had wanted to use a coffee rub on meat for a while and the flavor was good and and 2) we eschewed the vanilla in the recipe because there was no way that either of us would add vanilla to a rib roast. No &%*^ way!
As for the accompaniments, there were issues there too. For the first time in a while, we have a TV. We've been watching a bit (too much) and on the food network, it's been "gastrique this" and "gastrique that". We finally looked it up and realized that a gastrique is what we do every time we make BBQ sauce. Who knew? So we found a recipe for Skillet Greens with Crispy Shallots and Cider Gastrique. We used beet greens so that the cooking time would be less than say, collard greens, and so that we'd have the beets themselves to roast with thyme. Unfortunately, it takes a lot more greens that the greens from two bunches of beets to serve four people. Another mis-step.
To accompany the meal, Josh and Katie brought a smooth, aged (2006?) BV cabernet sauvignon. We also cracked a magnum of what was most likely a Louis Martini Monterosso cab that Jim's brother bought (stole for) him a few years back. No label but it was good. We only had a glass each so we just polished it off last night with some friends over beautiful big burgers.
And that's all we've got to say about that.
Jim and Peta
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Gerber Shmerber!
A big hello to the gaping maw that is the Internet from Jim and Peta!
We've been very busy with our bambino who is now seven months old. Too busy to make a lot of crazy food, test recipes and be food pedants. However (you knew there'd be a "however"), we have been making baby food. Since at least 1995, we've known that foods ingested by a pregnant mother can affect the odor (and taste?) of amniotic fluid. Then there was an NPR segment on the same issue recently. We figured that because we ate so much weird stuff (our usual fare) during Peta's pregnancy, that CJ would be up for anything. In addition to mashing up things like mango and avocado (not together!), things that Jim didn't eat until later in life, three "weird" things that we've fed him so far have been pear-broccoli-ginger, squash and lemongrass and sweet potato-spinach-cilantro-cumin. He has loved them!
So if you are adventurous eaters, don't baby your baby! Food allergies are a concern, of course, so we are introducing things slowly, one-by-one, but we like to mix it up for him. We love to cook (duh), and we don't want to be in a situation where we are making two (or more) different meals just because chicken nuggets and goldfish are the only things our kids will eat.
Pear-Broccoli-Ginger Baby Food
We've been very busy with our bambino who is now seven months old. Too busy to make a lot of crazy food, test recipes and be food pedants. However (you knew there'd be a "however"), we have been making baby food. Since at least 1995, we've known that foods ingested by a pregnant mother can affect the odor (and taste?) of amniotic fluid. Then there was an NPR segment on the same issue recently. We figured that because we ate so much weird stuff (our usual fare) during Peta's pregnancy, that CJ would be up for anything. In addition to mashing up things like mango and avocado (not together!), things that Jim didn't eat until later in life, three "weird" things that we've fed him so far have been pear-broccoli-ginger, squash and lemongrass and sweet potato-spinach-cilantro-cumin. He has loved them!
So if you are adventurous eaters, don't baby your baby! Food allergies are a concern, of course, so we are introducing things slowly, one-by-one, but we like to mix it up for him. We love to cook (duh), and we don't want to be in a situation where we are making two (or more) different meals just because chicken nuggets and goldfish are the only things our kids will eat.
Pear-Broccoli-Ginger Baby Food
- Peel 6 pears, cut into quarters the long way, core them and place in a covered pot with a small amount of water.
- Peel a 2-inch piece of ginger, grate it and add it to the pears. Bring the water to a boil and turn heat down to low.
- Trim one small head of broccoli and cut into small pieces. Peel the stem and add it or compost it! Steam the broccoli but keep it dark green.
- When the pears can be pierced with a knife, add the broccoli (minus the broccoli water) and puree with an immersion blender.
- Let it cool and feed it to your youngins! Freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays and you'll have a once a day/once every two day meal.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
An Oscar Fit For An Oscar
At Jim's old restaurant, the Ebb Tide, they used to serve Filet Mignon (and chicken) à la Oscar.
Traditionally the protein was veal and was pounded into a scallopini. But the pocketbook and animal "ethics" say, "Nay!" for "The Tide" and for us as well.
Various sources claim that the "Oscar" was either the King of Oscar II of Sweden who was a fan of the dish or Oscar Tshirky, the maitre d'hotel of Delmonico's Restaurant and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. The latter also popularized the Waldorf salad, Thousand Islands Dressing and may have had a hand in Eggs Benedict! Anyone who has ever seen this blog will know of our penchant for various on the Eggs Benedict here, here and here.
But lest you think that we are in a Sauce Hollandaise rut, we'll throw the curve. In the recipes for dishes served in the Oscar style that we found, the protein is served with the traditional asparagus, sauce béarnaise and crabmeat (or crayfish). Oooh, so tricky! They replaced lemon with tarragon and vinegar. OK, so Escoffier would put it in the same "mother sauce" classification because the two sauces are pretty similar. We did the Escoffier version with Jim's parents a while back and it was good, but we decided to give Sonja Lee's "Sauce" version a try.
Jim forgot the cayenne, but it was pretty darned tasty, even though we've had mixed success with her recipes. We plated the filet, the asparagus, the crab and topped it all with way too much sauce. And when we say "too much", we mean just enough. The 2003 Clarendon Hill Grenache was a bit hot on the tongue, but the flavors worked pretty well together.
Jim and Peta
Traditionally the protein was veal and was pounded into a scallopini. But the pocketbook and animal "ethics" say, "Nay!" for "The Tide" and for us as well.
Various sources claim that the "Oscar" was either the King of Oscar II of Sweden who was a fan of the dish or Oscar Tshirky, the maitre d'hotel of Delmonico's Restaurant and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. The latter also popularized the Waldorf salad, Thousand Islands Dressing and may have had a hand in Eggs Benedict! Anyone who has ever seen this blog will know of our penchant for various on the Eggs Benedict here, here and here.
But lest you think that we are in a Sauce Hollandaise rut, we'll throw the curve. In the recipes for dishes served in the Oscar style that we found, the protein is served with the traditional asparagus, sauce béarnaise and crabmeat (or crayfish). Oooh, so tricky! They replaced lemon with tarragon and vinegar. OK, so Escoffier would put it in the same "mother sauce" classification because the two sauces are pretty similar. We did the Escoffier version with Jim's parents a while back and it was good, but we decided to give Sonja Lee's "Sauce" version a try.
Jim forgot the cayenne, but it was pretty darned tasty, even though we've had mixed success with her recipes. We plated the filet, the asparagus, the crab and topped it all with way too much sauce. And when we say "too much", we mean just enough. The 2003 Clarendon Hill Grenache was a bit hot on the tongue, but the flavors worked pretty well together.
Jim and Peta
Monday, July 4, 2011
Pavlovian Response...
The other day, we went to a BBQ with Peta's "Mommy Group". We had some nice grilled tri-tip, portobello mushrooms, sausages and asparagus along with some tasty summer salads. We brought the cucumber and poppy seed salad that we've adopted from the Ottolenghi cookbook, the virtues of which we have extolled on many of our posts. Peta made her Chocolate and Raspberry Pavlova, a traditional Aussie/Kiwi meringue-based dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova. From Wiki: "The dessert is believed to have been created in honour of the dancer either during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. The nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years, but formal research indicates New Zealand as the more probable source."
Sorry Peta! Jim thought the name was from his Pavlovian (drool) response whenever Peta mentions it. Wrong again, Jim!
Chocolate and Raspberry Pavlova
6 egg whites
300g caster sugar (you can just buzz plain sugar in a spice mill or Cuisinart)
3 T cocoa powder
1 t balsamic or red wine vinegar
50 g dark chocolate, finely chopped & extra for topping
500 mL double cream topping (whipped cream works fine)
Preheat oven to 180C/356F and line a baking tray with parchment/baking paper. Beat the egg whites until satiny peaks form. Beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny. Sprinkle over the cocoa, vinegar and chopped chocolate. Gently fold everything until cocoa is thoroughly mixed in. Mound onto the baking tray at ~23cm diameter. Place in the oven then immediately turn the temperature down to 150C/302F and cook for 1 - 1 1/4 hours. The meringue should be crisp around the edges and sides but feel spongy when prodded. Turn the oven off, open the oven door and let it cool. Don't worry about a collapse. It will all be covered over in the next phase!
When cool, top with the cream and fruit and chocolate and serve. Slice, eat and enjoy.
Jim and Peta
Sorry Peta! Jim thought the name was from his Pavlovian (drool) response whenever Peta mentions it. Wrong again, Jim!
Chocolate and Raspberry Pavlova
6 egg whites
300g caster sugar (you can just buzz plain sugar in a spice mill or Cuisinart)
3 T cocoa powder
1 t balsamic or red wine vinegar
50 g dark chocolate, finely chopped & extra for topping
500 mL double cream topping (whipped cream works fine)
Preheat oven to 180C/356F and line a baking tray with parchment/baking paper. Beat the egg whites until satiny peaks form. Beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny. Sprinkle over the cocoa, vinegar and chopped chocolate. Gently fold everything until cocoa is thoroughly mixed in. Mound onto the baking tray at ~23cm diameter. Place in the oven then immediately turn the temperature down to 150C/302F and cook for 1 - 1 1/4 hours. The meringue should be crisp around the edges and sides but feel spongy when prodded. Turn the oven off, open the oven door and let it cool. Don't worry about a collapse. It will all be covered over in the next phase!
When cool, top with the cream and fruit and chocolate and serve. Slice, eat and enjoy.
Jim and Peta
Huevos Benedictos
If anyone out there is reading (or knows us at all), you'll know that we enjoy "slutty" sauces like Hollandaise, we like eggs and we like eating and creating variations on Eggs Benedict. After stopping at the Spanish Table, a purveyor of all things Spanish (along with some Moroccan and Tunisian items) for the kitchen, we picked up some aged Manchego cheese and some jamón serrano with which we planned to make bocadillos, quick, uncooked ham and cheese sandwiches that were everywhere in Spain when we went on our separate trips to that beautiful country.
Instead, we used the Hollandaise recipe above along with the cheese, ham, bread and eggs to make another version of Eggs Benedict which we dubbed "Huevos Benedictos". The aged Manchego was a little too strong and Jim hasn't really come anywhere near to perfecting his poached eggs, but the "flavors were there" as Peta says.
Jim & Peta
Instead, we used the Hollandaise recipe above along with the cheese, ham, bread and eggs to make another version of Eggs Benedict which we dubbed "Huevos Benedictos". The aged Manchego was a little too strong and Jim hasn't really come anywhere near to perfecting his poached eggs, but the "flavors were there" as Peta says.
Jim & Peta
Chim-chim-ichurri...
This is just a quick post to mark the only Chimichurri sauce that we'll ever need. We forget the website recipe that we used, since we just cut and pasted the recipe into TextEdit. We apologize for not given credit where it's due. This recipe used up nearly the last of our Italian flat-leaved parsley. We haven't bought parsley since last year but we'll have to start a new batch once it cools down. We use this sauce on venison, chicken and vegetables; it's quite versatile.
• 1 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup (packed) fresh cilantro
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
Jim & Peta
• 1 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup (packed) fresh cilantro
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
Jim & Peta
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Woodacre Country Market & Deli
Why in world would anyone order a corned beef sandwich in the last third of a 42 mile bike ride? His brain was not getting enough glucose and it was the very first thing on the menu? Let's go with that. A sandwich from a deli can range from a Polish hammer to the GI tract to a sublime experience. We're not exaggerating about sublime. Jim remembers the best sandwich he even had: a Black Forest Special -- Black Forest Ham, Swiss, lettuce, thick slices of tomato, crisp lettuce and Thousand Islands dressing on a loaf of garlic bread. This was at a road-side deli in New York in... 1991. There has not been its equal. Although the tarragon and spring onion chicken salad on a baguette from a deli in Arlington, VA where the olive oil drips down your arms runs a close second.
"Would you like dark or light rye?" Jim took that as a good sign, the choice of rye bread. In retrospect, it was not a good call if a Reuben sandwich is what one expects. And when the description includes sauerkraut, Swiss and Russian dressing, a Rueben sandwich with grilled bread is expected. Except Jim's brain was shutting down; he didn't even react when the counterman pulled his sandwich from the microwave. And why did he order dark rye? And why is it not grilled or at the very least toasted? And why is the meat so gristly that he must grab the meat behind each bite so that it all doesn't come out at once? And why did he finish this disgusting wreck of a sandwich? And why did he not clean his hands of the guck that covered them making biking even more difficult than it already was after 30 miles? And why is he about to vomit going back over White's Hill with a belly full of garbage?
There are no simple answers to this question. OK, maybe the simplest. Jim is losing it. Bye-bye sanity. But I still partially blame the Woodacre Country Market & Deli. For shame, o ye of the terrible sandwich!
Jim and Peta
"Would you like dark or light rye?" Jim took that as a good sign, the choice of rye bread. In retrospect, it was not a good call if a Reuben sandwich is what one expects. And when the description includes sauerkraut, Swiss and Russian dressing, a Rueben sandwich with grilled bread is expected. Except Jim's brain was shutting down; he didn't even react when the counterman pulled his sandwich from the microwave. And why did he order dark rye? And why is it not grilled or at the very least toasted? And why is the meat so gristly that he must grab the meat behind each bite so that it all doesn't come out at once? And why did he finish this disgusting wreck of a sandwich? And why did he not clean his hands of the guck that covered them making biking even more difficult than it already was after 30 miles? And why is he about to vomit going back over White's Hill with a belly full of garbage?
There are no simple answers to this question. OK, maybe the simplest. Jim is losing it. Bye-bye sanity. But I still partially blame the Woodacre Country Market & Deli. For shame, o ye of the terrible sandwich!
Jim and Peta
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Thai "Beef" Salad
So, you say, it's too warm for stews and hot soups and your go-to summer meal, Vietnamese Fresh Rolls, is getting kind of tired. Hmm, what to do? How about Thai Beef Salad, with venison subbing for beef? You've got to try it! So fresh and light and good.
Thai Beef Salad For Four
Peta and Jim
Thai Beef Salad For Four
- 2 T soy sauce
- 2 T fish sauce
- 2 T lime juice
- 2 garlic cloves
- 50 g palm sugar (Peta is Australian and because nobody listened to Carter, Jim doesn't know how much that is)
- 3 T of cilantro/coriander leaves
Peta and Jim
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Turkey for me, and turkey for you
Turkey? But it's not Thanksgiving or lunch-time, you say. Question: why is it that we in the US only use turkey in thin slices on bread for pack lunches or feel as though we need to do turkey "with all the trimmings" even when it's not Thanksgiving (Jim: Guilty!)? What about just a roast turkey breast in place of chicken? Why so rigid when it comes to turkey, a fowl with a distinct, excellent flavor?
Well, we didn't start out wanting to cook turkey; we just wanted a meal that could be marinated the night before and then just thrown into the oven so that Peta wouldn't have to sauté stuff or have multiple pans going while juggling the bambino. So roast meats with a quick veg and starch seemed like the way to go. We used the Ottolenghi cookbook that Peta's brother gave us as a gift and started hunting for recipes. We came across a few that we'll be doing in the future: Roast Chicken with Saffron, Hazelnuts and Honey; Roast Chicken with Sumac, Za'atar and Lemon and Marinated Rack of Lamb with Coriander and Honey but the one that caught our eye was --
Marinated Turkey Breast with Cumin, Coriander and White Wine:
We won't type it all here because you want to buy this book, but suffice it to say you blend the mint, parsley, coriander, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, white wine, cumin, salt and pepper, dump it over the turkey, let in marinate overnight and then roast starting high and ending low temperature-wise. Then let the meat rest for 10 minutes while you reduce the left-over marinade and de-fatted pan juices into your sauce. So many people forget to let the meat rest. We would spare you that pain...
We served this roast turkey over couscous with sun-dried tomatoes and (homemade!) preserved lemons along with a shaved fennel and grapefruit salad.
Sound good? It was!
Well, we didn't start out wanting to cook turkey; we just wanted a meal that could be marinated the night before and then just thrown into the oven so that Peta wouldn't have to sauté stuff or have multiple pans going while juggling the bambino. So roast meats with a quick veg and starch seemed like the way to go. We used the Ottolenghi cookbook that Peta's brother gave us as a gift and started hunting for recipes. We came across a few that we'll be doing in the future: Roast Chicken with Saffron, Hazelnuts and Honey; Roast Chicken with Sumac, Za'atar and Lemon and Marinated Rack of Lamb with Coriander and Honey but the one that caught our eye was --
Marinated Turkey Breast with Cumin, Coriander and White Wine:
We won't type it all here because you want to buy this book, but suffice it to say you blend the mint, parsley, coriander, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, white wine, cumin, salt and pepper, dump it over the turkey, let in marinate overnight and then roast starting high and ending low temperature-wise. Then let the meat rest for 10 minutes while you reduce the left-over marinade and de-fatted pan juices into your sauce. So many people forget to let the meat rest. We would spare you that pain...
We served this roast turkey over couscous with sun-dried tomatoes and (homemade!) preserved lemons along with a shaved fennel and grapefruit salad.
Sound good? It was!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Shanks for the Memories
The other day, we decided to put our venison shanks to use with a recipe adapted from a lamb shanks recipe: Braised Lamb Shanks with Coriander, Fennel and Star Anise. We wrote "Shanks for the Memories" because Jim had cooked the recipe (with lamb) for his friends Malinda and Amelia. They liked it so much that they all bailed on going out for Peruvian food that night (and drank a bunch of Port). What a great night!
Anyway, very simply, the shanks are rubbed with the spices and braised in Ruby Port. We got Tawny instead of Ruby and had to add some honey for sweetness to make it "just like the last time". Well... the absence of fat in the venison shanks hurt us. It was tough and the flavor just wasn't there. It was easier than having to bone the shanks and grind the meat, I suppose, but we'll stick with the lamb in the future. And we didn't use beef stock which we probably should have. We served the shanks with mashed potatoes rather than cous cous. That's about it for tonight. Tired, so tired...
Jim and Peta
Anyway, very simply, the shanks are rubbed with the spices and braised in Ruby Port. We got Tawny instead of Ruby and had to add some honey for sweetness to make it "just like the last time". Well... the absence of fat in the venison shanks hurt us. It was tough and the flavor just wasn't there. It was easier than having to bone the shanks and grind the meat, I suppose, but we'll stick with the lamb in the future. And we didn't use beef stock which we probably should have. We served the shanks with mashed potatoes rather than cous cous. That's about it for tonight. Tired, so tired...
Jim and Peta
Saturday, April 2, 2011
We Love Short Shorts(bread)
Ever since ditching his Gourmet Cookbook (the yellow one with the hard to read yellow titles), Jim has missed a few recipes that were perfect. Yeah, yeah, he and Peta have The New Best Recipe book (AKA the Bible), and while most recipes therein are pretty good, the Shortbread comes up way short. Too fussy, too many steps blah, blah.
It was actually challenging to find the plain Gourmet recipe online, the one without the chocolate. This recipe is super easy and like the un-PC, Billy Dee Williams Colt 45 Malt Liquor commercials, it "works every time".
We stole the adaptation from this blog.
Jim and Peta
It was actually challenging to find the plain Gourmet recipe online, the one without the chocolate. This recipe is super easy and like the un-PC, Billy Dee Williams Colt 45 Malt Liquor commercials, it "works every time".
We stole the adaptation from this blog.
Jim and Peta
Shortbread
(adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook)
1 stick fine, unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I beg you to use the real thing, no imitations here!)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose-flour
Put a rack in the middle of oven and preheat to 375 degrees.
Blend together butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a bowl with a fork until well combined. Soft flour over butter mixture and blend together until a soft dough forms. (I used my hands here.)
Transfer dough to an ungreased baking sheet. Pat into a 9-by-4 1/2 inch rectangle. Crimp edges decoratively with tines of a fork and prick dough all over. Score dough crosswise with the back of a knife into 8 pieces.
Bake shortbread until edges are golden, about 15 minutes. Cool on baking sheet on a rack for 10 minutes, then cut into slices (while still warm) with a sharp knife. transfer to rack to cool completely.
Note: The shortbread keeps in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
We are alive (and crave Indian!!)
We are alive! Lots of stuff going on since our last post: weddings, babies, new jobs. Craziness. Let's just get right to the punch.
We haven't been able to get out to our favorite Indian restaurant Ajanta in Berkeley since Cole's arrival. Jim's parents gave us a give certificate that we'll use when they come in May, but when we want Indian, WE WANT INDIAN!! So when Peta's mum was here, we got the Chef Special from Lotus in San Rafael. It ended up being $70 for three that we thought would last all week. Yeah, right. Although they threw in a free riata, the portions were tiny and we'll probably not give them a second chance.
But we've been hankering for even more Indian, so we've been going through the chicken dishes from the Ajanta cookbook. Last week was Methi Murg, the first dish that Peta got from Ajanta. Very tasty as always although we forgot the garam masala on the first round. No use really blogging about it, but we follow the recipe to the letter and the author/owner Lachu Moorjani never disappoints.
Last night, we cooked Murgi Ka Saalan (Chicken Curry) from the Uttar Pradesh region and really wanted Aloo Saag (Spinach and Potatoes), a Punjabi vegetarian dish. We've been very disappointed with the chlorine taste of the el-Cheapo frozen spinach that we bought a while back. Buying in bulk was a bad call this time and we hoped to mask the taste under a barrage of heady spices.
There is no recipe for this dish in the Ajanta cookbook, and we found wildly different versions online. So we picked and chose what we thought would be the appropriate flavors. We won't put down all of the ingredients in each, just the real differences:
Recipe 1:
Cheers,
Jim and Peta
We haven't been able to get out to our favorite Indian restaurant Ajanta in Berkeley since Cole's arrival. Jim's parents gave us a give certificate that we'll use when they come in May, but when we want Indian, WE WANT INDIAN!! So when Peta's mum was here, we got the Chef Special from Lotus in San Rafael. It ended up being $70 for three that we thought would last all week. Yeah, right. Although they threw in a free riata, the portions were tiny and we'll probably not give them a second chance.
But we've been hankering for even more Indian, so we've been going through the chicken dishes from the Ajanta cookbook. Last week was Methi Murg, the first dish that Peta got from Ajanta. Very tasty as always although we forgot the garam masala on the first round. No use really blogging about it, but we follow the recipe to the letter and the author/owner Lachu Moorjani never disappoints.
Last night, we cooked Murgi Ka Saalan (Chicken Curry) from the Uttar Pradesh region and really wanted Aloo Saag (Spinach and Potatoes), a Punjabi vegetarian dish. We've been very disappointed with the chlorine taste of the el-Cheapo frozen spinach that we bought a while back. Buying in bulk was a bad call this time and we hoped to mask the taste under a barrage of heady spices.
There is no recipe for this dish in the Ajanta cookbook, and we found wildly different versions online. So we picked and chose what we thought would be the appropriate flavors. We won't put down all of the ingredients in each, just the real differences:
Recipe 1:
- 1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds
- 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1/2 tsp Chilli Powder
- 1/2 tsp Ground Coriander
- 2 tsp Fenugreek
- 3 green chilies
- ginger
- 1/2 tsp red chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp of coriander powder
- 1 tsp of garam masala
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 pinch ground asafetida powder (optional)
- 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 6 fenugreek seeds (methi)
- ¼ tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)
- 2 tblsp cilantro (dhania), chopped
- 4 curry leaves (kari patta)
- 1 1/2 tsp mango (aam) powder
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 11/2 tsp coriander
- 2 red chilles, sliced
- 10 pieces ginger (adrak), shredded
- 2 tsp Black Mustard Seeds
- 2 inches Ginger
- 1 Tbsp Garlic
- 1 chopped onion
- 2 chapped tomatoes
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- 6 Fenugreek seeds
- 1/2 tsp Cumin
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne
- 1/4 tsp Nigella seeds
- One pinch of asafetida powder
- 1 chopped Serrano chili
- 2 Tbsp chopped Cilantro
Cheers,
Jim and Peta
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