Forget the vegetables. Put a poached egg yolk on top for a bacon, egg and cheese risotto.

Sounds like a delicious combination.

I did a quick check through a few of my cookbooks, and the 1:1 yolk to white is pretty standard. Did you squeeze all the water out of the spinach? That could contribute to the moisture problem.

My first attempt at making chili. Turned out great! I'm not usually great at improvisation where food is concerned, however tonight, no problem. Meat (chopped, not ground) and beans. Moderate heat via chiles in adobo and some dried red pepper flakes. Topped with chopped avocado and a light sprinkle of extra sharp cheddar cheese, but no sour cream because I forgot to buy it. Lunch tomorrow will be terrific.

Azami made tsukimi soba -- soba noodles, fish paste, scallions, and a raw egg in broth, sprinkled with seven-spice powder. It was gorgeous, in addition to being really, really good.

To celebrate our good fortune in getting the last flight to Dulles out of Denver last night we made Gordon Hamersley's roast chicken with potatoes and onions, an exceptional dish that is comforting as well as elegant, and produces a chicken that's beautifully moist with delicate pan juices.

http://www.sjl.us/scotts_kitchen/2005/11/h...sleys_roas.html

It went nicely with a 2005 St. Aubin Remilly.

And it was wonderful to enjoy it here.

We had swordfish steak, cooked stovetop in a Le Creuset skillet, seasoned with some soy sauce and a little hot pepper sesame oil. Alongside we had a fabulous (if I do say so myself) vinaigrette-dressed salad of romaine, parsley, toasted walnuts, sliced radishes and cucumbers, warm slices of golden beets, and Nevat soft-ripened Catalonian goat cheese that I picked up at Cheesetique earlier in the day. I wanted a goat cheese but didn't know which, so tried a few and loved the Nevat. When it was still chilled a bit, it sliced like an aged cheddar. Once it softened up more, it crumbled a bit like a feta. I love this cheese.

Indeed. Works for carbonara, why not risotto? It turned out well.

Will definitely try egg yolk or celeriac at some point too.

For some reason, I avoid rice with Chinese food (much to my mom's dismay) but love risotto.

Cappelletti en brodo
Green salad with roasted beets and shallot dressing
Monkey's panettone bread pudding.

Grilled, head-on prawns and day-boat scallops and
Stone-ground grits (totally different than Quaker long-cooking!)
with saffron-Meyer lemon broth (based on shrimp stock)
Haricots verts
Sauteed shiitake and crimini mushrooms

2005 Drylands Sauvignon Blanc

Guiness stout ginger cake and vanilla ice cream

Anything we eat today will suffer compared to our fine, fine early breakfast, so we're going for a super easy, healthy dinner - a big chopped salad with cucumbers, grape tomatoes, leftover blanched haricots vert, celery, yellow peppers, olive oil-packed tuna, butter lettuce, and scallions. Champagne/walnut oil vinaigrette. Baguette with butter & sea salt, and a bottle of French rose alongside.

For New Year's Eve, I finally broke out the fondue pot I got as a birthday present (all the way back in February).

Classic emmenthaler and gruyere fondue
Sorta cassoulet of black eyed peas and andouille
Chocolate and Cointreau fondue

Tonight, The Best Recipe's Supermarket chili, served on rice with sour cream, cheddar, scallions, cilantro and the usual garnishes.

We were supposed to have Onion Soup (the Bouchon recipe) but someone chucked a hunk of play dough into the pot while the onions were cooking down. I had to throw 8 lbs. of onions into the garbage.

It was good. I ate four scoops and kind of regret it now, though. I need to learn to calibrate on our new soup plates - they are bigger than I thought.


If I may disclose our IM conversation from this afternoon:

[16:06] shorter.rm: what was that shouting about?
[16:15] Heather Shorter: there was a chunk of play dough in the dutch oven
[16:15] Heather Shorter: it's all over the onions
[16:15] Heather Shorter: x(
[16:16] shorter.rm: ARGH
[16:17] Heather Shorter: indeed
[16:18] Heather Shorter: there goes 8 onions in the trash

Now, if this had been homemade play dough, you might have gotten away with it...
Chalk it up as one of those "kids do the darndest things" experiences that will make a great funny story to tell in future years, that Ian will get sick of hearing as he gets older. I assume it was the 4 year-old, helping you to cook...

Our dinner tonight:
Lavender and thyme-brined, charcoal roasted chicken (roasted cheese-stuffed portabella for Veggie-teen)
Roasted Kabocha squash risotto
Haricots verts

2005 Shoofly grenache-shiraz-viognier blend

Brioche bread pudding

Ha! No unfortunately this was store bought, and turquoise.

Tomorrow's menu is our favorite kaprow recipe, with duck instead of chicken, but I am wondering if duck breast will get too dry. I bought three ducks for confit and have to use up the breasts.

Cod poached in a spicy coconut sauce (from Best Ever Indian) and Basmati rice

I wouldn’t say it was the “Best Ever Indian,” but anything with coconut milk gets points with me. The combination of coconut milk and tamarind resulted in a sweet-sour curry. Could have used more chiles, but had originally planned on halving the recipe. Used kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves), rather than fenugreek seeds. Didn’t particularly care for the cod; it didn’t seem “cooked” and was rather bland. Next time I'll probably try this with eggplant. Seconds were the curry sauce over the rice. Dinner was salvaged.

Two questions: Would I have gotten more “flavor” from the cod if I had browned/sautéed it prior to adding it to the curry? And, can coconut milk be frozen?

Cod is a very "mild" (tasteless, actually) fish under the best of circumstances. If it was frozen and thawed it has even less flavor. Sauteeing is unlikely to have helped much. Good cod recipes usually involve other flavor elements--garlic, tomato, onions, capers, herbs, olives, etc. Or frying. Next time, use a fish with more character for your curry-- monkfish, snapper, rockfish, orange roughy or Chilean seabass (ie. Patagonian toothfish). I'm sure I'll be scolded for suggesting endangered fish, but look for something similar...

Coconut products freeze well, in general.

Red chile beef and bean burritos with a bottle of my next-door neighbor's home brew.

Oven-braised pork shoulder with carrots and prunes (and onion, leek, garlic, celery and white wine)
Roasted Kabocha squash puree
Fingerling potatoes
Chard stems sort of a la Marcella Hazan--cooked in chicken stock until tender and then baked with cheese. Marcella says to use butter and parmesan. I used ricotta and parm to boost the protein for veggie-teen, since it was her entree, and added some crimini mushrooms and roasted garlic to the chopped chard stems. It was delicious.

2004 St. Cosme´ Cotes du Rhone

Dessert was one square from each of three single estate Valrhona chocolate bars--my favorite was Palmira plantation from Venezuela. Amazing complexity.

I'm making Jeane Kirkpatrick's paella from this past week's food section, plus green salad, and eggnog-pecan-pumpkin pie.

Yet another, "oh sh*t it's 5 o'clock and I have no idea what's for dinner" meal tonight. Spinach sauteed with butter, shallots, nutmeg, s & p, finished with a little heavy cream and tucked into omelets with a little crumbled Stilton found hanging around in the fridge. Side of steamed broccoli to counteract all the butter, eggs and cream.

As part of the fitness challenge, tonight we had:

arugula salad
haricot verts
red pepper and onion torta

followed by a 2004 Piocho for dessert

I'm, still sorting all this out. Last night I made a cauliflower soup and a salad with clementines and goat cheese. Tonight was tuna steaks from Trader Joe's with sweet and sour onions a la Biba Caggiano, sliced sweet potatoes a la Jacques Pepin and pan fried yellow squash a la me.

Last night's dinner for seven:

Carrot and carrot top soup
Corn nugget crab cakes
Creamed bacon potato puree
Haricot verts with blood orange juice
Rustic pumpernickel bread
Key lime tart

The soup, crab cakes, and potatoes were from Michel Richard's Happy in the Kitchen. Dessert was from Whole Foods.

My back is sore from kitchen work!

Thanks for reminding me about this. I'd flagged this as a must try and promptly forgot. Maybe next weekend if I'm not back in the Keys.

Wafuu curry from the Jan/Feb Saveur, made with pork instead of chicken, and rice
Miso soup
Kariho Choukarakuchi sake, carried back from Akita Prefecture last year.

Last night for 12:

Bosc Pear Salad with a balsalmic vinagrette on a base of mixed greens
roasted butternut squash soup with creme fraiche
roasted green beans with sea salt
bleu cheese macaroni and cheese
burgers served on english muffins with white american cheese
cheese plate consisting of morbier, camembert, port salut, smoked mozarella, fresh mozarella, and a smoked cheddar

Same story here last night. I was cooking a pot of Falcon beans (they look like miniature black-eyed peas), that I "sourced" at Surfa's last month. They have a whole shelf of dried beans in varieties I've never heard of, so I bought a few when I was there. It was 6:30 and the beans were still very al dente. By request, I made a frittatta with yellow, orange and green peppers left over from Saturday's crudite´ plate, some shallot, garlic (roasted and raw), crimini mushrooms, ricotta, feta and Reggiano, scallions and lemon thyme. We had it with sliced baguette and a 2005 Glaetzer Gruner Veltliner. Macerated strawberries and B&J ice cream for dessert.

tonight:

chickpea soup garnished with chorizo, roasted cauliflower and parsley
fresh baked wheat sourdough bread

Lamb burgers (with ground lamb from the Lamb Lady) seasoned with cumin, grilled, and served in pita with crumbled feta and Total tzatziki. The pita was from Whole Foods and not bad once finished in a hot oven for a few minutes. The lamb is very lean, almost too lean IMO, but flavorful.

Salad of diced cucumber, red onion, mint and pretty good cherry tomatoes from Toigo. Dressed with olive oil & red wine vinegar.

Bonaparte apple tart.

Sometimes it's fun to cook for just myself. Tonight's dinner:
smoked paprika tzatziki with fennel, celery, and cucumber for dipping
a big plate of wilted spinach topped with roasted beets, tangerine segments, and fresh goat cheese
a 2002 California syrah
[no bacon fat was used in the making of this dinner]
ETA: found a bit of Lambchopper leftover from Christmas: dessert. hooray for sheep milk cheeses.

A work in progress. Waiting for egg and butter to reach room temperature with expectations of a very late dessert.

What's in the Fridge that Might Go Bad Semi-Puréed Soup

Lots of floppy celery, carrots, onions, half of a small butternut squash, 1/4 t pimenton, the rest of an old tin of Aleppo pepper, 1/4 sweet paprika, red pepper purée redeemed from disastrous role in horrid cabbage dish last week, 2 tea strainers full of red lentils for protein-rich thickening and plenty of chicken STOCK. Good.

Half of a thick slice of whole wheat bread, toasted and buttered.
Contemplating the idea of an escarole and fennel salad...

Chicken soup with spinach, tomato, and whole wheat noodles. I love having a fresh batch of stock.

Finally a cold night! I'm keeping warm with a big ole bowl of green chilli with too much Wisconsin sharp cheddar.

A friend and her daughter joined us for dinner:

Jicama, fennel. cucumber and red pepper with tzatziki (great minds think alike tonight!)

Stewed falcon beans
Chicken/turkey andouille
Basmati rice
Braised kale and spinach

Cheese plate: homemade lavender-fennel chevre, P'tit Basque (sheepmilk), Cashel Blue; Grayson VA. washed rind ( cowsmilk). Bonaparte fruited nut bread.

Marvelous Mkt. chocolate mousse cake with raspberries

2002 Edmunds St. John The Shadow Syrah
2005 Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz

Was greece in the news yesterday or something?

Nice to get proof your raising them properly...we were discussing the doneness of the lamb burgers and Emma piped up and said: "I prefer my burgers medium rare, but often they come out well done," in a very disapproving tone. Scott and I cracked up.

My 9-year-old has decided that he no longer likes McDonalds, because they won't cook a hamburger medium rare. This is a huge victory since hamburgers, in his opinion, are the greatest foodstuff on the planet. In fact, he was at one of those chain places that will only cook burgers to medium-well or better, and he changed his order rather than get a medium-well hockey puck.

This is officially a sign of truly wonderful parenting.

Nah, it just means you're doomed to ordering full-priced mains for the expensive little buggers, because they won't touch the stuff on the "Kid's Menu."

The return of cold weather made me hungry for my go-to comfort food of this season - my take on "mexican" mac & cheese. I used a mix of cheddar, monterey jack and chihuahua cheeses in the sauce and also added in crumbled chorizo sausage. Add a side of steamed broccoli to make myself feel healthy!

Tonight: Posole verde with chicken and a mixed-greens salad. Keeping in mind Don's dinner invitation for the "losers" of the fitness challenge.

I made a long overdue birthday dinner on Saturday...We started with caramelized onions and brie crostini (no picture) and then had butternut squash soup.



Roasted lamb with white beans


And for dessert, chocolate bread pudding from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking From My Home To Yours"

Roughly followed a recipe from St. Jacques Fast Food My Way and prepared a delicious and easy to make salmon fillet.

Put a little EVOO on a baking sheet and S&P both sides of a skinned fillet of salmon and place on pan.
Top with a mixture of bread crumbs and chopped almonds (about 1 cup for 2.5lb of salmon).
Bake at 200F for 30-45 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fillet).
Top with freshly chopped herbs (I used some parsley and fennel fronds).
Serve with condiment of choice.

Last night was a crockpot stew with beef, pork, black beans, green chilies, and tomatoes (plus cumin, adobo seasoning, chili powder and so forth). I had taken the beef and pork out the freezer the other day before realizing the paella would make several meals worth of food, but the the meat had to be cooked since it was thawed (and had been in the freezer quite some time before that)

The stew was quite good and will be recycled in something tonight. Unfortunately, I think the remaining paella is no longer so good to eat

You've forgotten how huge my 9-year-old is. We left the kids menu behind at most restaurants 2 years ago.

I stopped in at A&H Seafood in Bethesda, and they had fresh shrimp from Maine for $4.99 a pound, and whole fresh squid for $2.99 --this was sparklingly fresh seafood, and I couldn't resist. It took me 45 minutes to shell 1 1/2 pounds of shrimps (they were tiny) and clean a pound of squid and cut it into thin little rings, but I then made shrimp stock with the shells, and made a Thai-ish seafood stew -- pureed some roasted eggplant and sauteed shallot, fresh ginger root, Thai green curry paste , coconut milk, lime juice and shrimp stock and then poached baby bok choy, mushrooms, squid and shrimps in it and served with chopped cilantro, lime wedge and basmati rice (didn't have jasmine). It was just on the verge of being too spicy, but the shrimp was really sweet and the bok choy gave a little crunch, the eggplant thickened it and added depth of flavor and it was creamy--wow. I thought it was a very successful improvisation for someone who doesn't cook much Asian food.

Monday: Pasta puttanesca; vanilla ice cream with crumbled amaretti
Tuesday: Awesomely hot green chile stew from Mom Davis's recipe; Bueno tortillas
Tonight: Meat loaf, peas, tots (I was too lazy to make the planned polenta)

On Monday I made a white bean soup in my Crock-Pot with some country ham, mire poix (with leeks instead of onions), some garlic, bay leaves, and a little pepper. For cooking liquid I used some chicken stock and water. After stewing for about 10 hours, I put all of the contents through a food mill to make a velvety soup. Once it was pureed, I added a little more salt, hot sauce, and red wine vinegar, then put it into the refrigerator to help the flavors develop.
Tuesday - we ate the soup.
Last night, I braised a pork loin in milk with onions and sage. I served this with lentils and sautéed rabe. The pork was nice, and the sauce was very good (load the curdled nasty looking contends of the pot - sans pork - into a blender and puree, it comes together quite nicely). I would do this again, but would change the cooking time. For temperature and time I followed what Joyce Goldstein suggests in Italy Slow and Savory. I found that 350 for 2 hours were too long and it caused the pork to dry out. Next time I will cook it at a much lower temperature for a longer time.

I first made this dish a long time ago, based on a Madeleine Kamman recipe, which she said was Swiss. She recommended that the dish be made with a bone-in loin. In general, braised meat dishes have more flavor when cooked with a bone. I find that boneless pork loins--whether chops or roast-- are often dry. I presume that this is because of lack of marbling, the "other white meat" syndrome. But I think your impulse to cook it low and slow is right. It is delicious, even though the pot is a pain to clean afterwards. I haven't made it in years. Hmmm.

True, but buying pork shouder also helps. There are numerous Italian regions such as Piemonte & Emiia-Romagna that braise pork (or chicken...) this way, with and without bones. Must be another example of the French stealing from the Italians.