This is about 3 weeks old, but on the first nice weekend of the year, we went to my parents' place to grill.
Shrimp with salt, pepper, olive oil and tons of garlic:
Grilled chicken (marinated with lemongrass, fish sauce, chili garlic sauce, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and some other stuff I can't remember) and eggplant (just salt, pepper and oil):
Spare ribs (3 hours in a low oven, then finished on the grill for 30 minutes):
(leftovers with bbq sauce and mashed potatoes with peas)
We had leftover spice rub for the ribs, so I marinated some extra chicken thighs with it. The next day, just threw it in the oven topped with some chopped fresh tomatoes....so easy and really tasty:
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Lamb spring rolls. We used the thin-sliced frozen lamb from the Asian market tossed with sesame oil, soy sauce and chili garlic sauce, and some marinated cabbage. On another night, we made more with shredded cucumber instead of cabbage. Yum!
Baby mustard greens sauteed with garlic and black beans
Spaghetti with a sauce of bacon, tuna, peas, onions and tomatoes, finished with a bit of cream:
Cauliflower soup again (chicken broth, water, cream, nutmeg) topped with bacon, carmelized onions, garlic and scallions:
Toasts with wild smoked salmon, cucumber and goat cheese foam. The "foam" was a bit of a disaster...we tried using gelatin with the iSi Whip for the first time, so it was a mix of milk, gelatin and goat cheese. I think we didn't let the mixture chill enough before trying to make the foam, so it deflated instantly. Oh well.
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We started with a roasted beet, scallop and dill goat cheese napoleon, with arugula salad on the side, and beet pureed with balsamic and some water:
The goat cheese was thinned with a bit of milk and mixed with fresh dill, and the scallops were halved and pan seared.
Curried sweet potato soup with yogurt and scallion oil:
We found ramps at Russo's that morning for the first time in 3 years! We cooked them with some bacon and browned butter, served over parmesan risotto:
Originally I wanted to make gnocchi, but that was this week's kitchen disaster. The potato turned to paste as I was mashing it. Yuck.
Asian-style braised pork belly over pickled cabbage (rice vinegar, sugar, salt, long pepper and sesame oil):
We let the cabbage pickle for a few days, and the pork belly braised for ~4 hours. Mmmmmmm fat.
Jason brought a nice light dessert of cantaloupe, raspberry sorbet, passionfruit sorbet and moscato:
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Once again, a few quick weekday dinners:
With the leftover risotto we had from the weekend, we made risotto cakes stuffed with mushroom, ramps and bacon. It was kind of a pain in the ass to form and bread these, but that was basically all the work involved. Sauce was extra stuffing mixed with tomato.
Chinese celery with five spice tofu. So easy and yummy.
Mustard greens with chick peas and kidney beans (canned), and indian spices (cumin, tumeric, chili, cardamom, ginger, garlic and sugar). Served with plain yogurt on the side.
Orchiette with spicy sausage, zucchini and tomato.
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a looooooong time ago, we made this dinner:
Broccoli cheese soup with lots of sharp cheddar on top:
Creamy pasta with bacon and strips of celery root:
This was just okay, not as good as I hoped
Whole striped bass en papillote, with ginger, garlic, lemon grass, thai basil, serrano chilis, red bell pepper, scallion, soy, lime and bourbon:
Possibly the freshest fish I've ever purchased...the thing was flopping around like crazy until the fish guy whacked it on the head
Steamed pork spareribs with black bean and garlic, plated with some brown rice and baby chinese cabbage:
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Food from the last couple weeks:
Baked ziti with green bell peppers, tomatoes, bacon and onions. The base was a bechamel sauce with mozzerella:
Broccoli cooked with garlic and chorizo:
Very flat potato latkes. These were really crispy and good, but I think I like them fatter...mmmmm fat:
Sesame noodles with cabbage and chicken. We marinated the cabbage overnight with soy sauce, lots of rice vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes and salt. The next day we cooked the chicken with lots of ginger and some soy sauce, then shredded it into the cabbage, and added spaghetti, then doused the whole thing with sesame oil and chili garlic sauce. Yum.
Long peppers: they're like a spicy but less numbing version of a szechuan peppercorn. We had apple slices topped with goat cheese, long pepper and olive oil:
Broccoli rabe with spicy turkey sausage. Kind of boring but tasty:
Chicken stew with mushrooms, carrots, bacon, onion, thyme, red wine and stock. Served over cheesy polenta...sooooo good:
Frisee salad with pistachios, bacon and mustard/sherry vinegar dressing:
Sauteed mustard greens with garlic and mashed potatoes:
From top center to the right are asian pear with fresh goat cheese and long pepper, humboldt fog, and a pyrenees sheep milk cheese with figs soaked in sherry.
We fabricated the duck, and we made confit with the legs and wings. We served it over frisee with dried cherries, pistachios and an orange/mustard dressing:
Then, mushroom soup topped with a chestnut foam (yay iSi whip!). During the afternoon, we put on a big pot of duck and chicken bones for stock, which we used in the soup. Also in the dish are sauteed mushrooms (with garlic, sherry and bacon), crispy shallots, thyme and strips of speck ham:
There was a bit too much going on (in my opinion), but still tasty.
Five spice duck breast with mashed white sweet potato (with ginger and cinnamon) and brussels sprouts with chili garlic sauce and fish sauce. Boy is that fish sauce stinky!
For dessert, my first attempt at creme brulee, this was flavored with earl gray (idea stolen from Eastern Standard)
The custard wasn't as smooth as I hoped, but it tasted good and we got a nice crunchy crust.
To drink, we had a 1999 Zind Humbrecht Riesling, which I thought might be too old, but it was great with the ginger and other spices in the duck. With the mushroom soup with had some oloroso sherry (Osborne).
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Fancy dinner:
We started with fingerling potato skins filled with the potato innards mashed with cream cheese, bacon and scallions:
These were the source of our first kitchen disaster of the day. When we went to fry the skins, we discovered that the oil in the fryer had gone rancid, but not before we stunk up the kitchen with a really nasty smell. Ugh. I made Keith fry up some garlic to try to get rid of the stink :-)
Soup of white sweet potato and apple, topped with vanilla oil and apple skin crisps:
This was the result of our second kitchen disaster! The original plan was to make parsnip and asian pear soup, but it came out horribly bitter. I'm not sure if the pear was bad, or if they just don't cook right. Anyway, we came up with this soup instead, and it was pretty good. The vanilla oil was made with our newly acquired POUND of vanilla beans--less than $20 including shipping! (Jason, please take some away if you want!)
Carbonara made with perciatelli (like very thick spaghetti with a hollow center):
Steak with wilted arugula and mashed potatoes with lots of butter and cream
We picked up this ribeye at Savenor's, and it was probably the nicest piece of meat I've ever purchased. We just seasoned with salt and pepper, then seared the hell out of it in a cast iron pan and finished in the oven.
Finished with bananas foster on vanilla ice cream, but it was devoured too quickly for photos
