Mussels with Saffron and Mustard (Thomas Keller Bouchon recipe)
Roasted Brussels Sprouts

2006 Cuatro Rayas Verdejo

The mussels recipe was surprisingly easy, though I may have gone a touch heavy on the saffron flavor.

we are having a dinner to settle a bet I made and on the menu is cheeseburgers, homemade fries, mac and cheese, adult milkshakes and a veggie dish of some sort.

Anyone have a killer recipie for burgers?

Mr. xcanuck, please pick up the white courtesy phone...

http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?showtopic=6372

Swedish meatballs: ground beef, ground pork, minced sauteed onion, bread soaked in milk, salt, pepper, allspice, nutmeg. Browned on the stove then popped in the oven.
Gravy made with cream and beef stock.
Rice & steamed broccoli.

Morbiere and baguette
Butter lettuce with avocado, feta, red pepper, radishes, Alphonso olives and balsamic vinaigrette
Meatballs with anchovies (from The Silver Spoon--wonderful meatball recipe)
Buttered egg noodles with Parmesan
Swiss chard with balsamic

Minestrone soup
Marvy Market baguette
Sticky toffee pudding

Thanks, yo.

Ricotta gnocchi with porcini sauce


Not the most vibrant looking dish, but damn if these aren't super-easy and delicious. Much less work than potato gnocchi (though likely not better for you), plus you don't have to be fussy, worried that you're going to make them tough. As long as you've got your ricotta ready (the supermarket stuff, like I used, needs to be drained in cheesecloth), these can be put together in no time. And you can freeze the leftovers. Perfect dinner party first course here.

Chris, would you post the recipe?

Extremely cold temps here in Chicago called for comfort food:
Roasted chicken
Garlic mashed potatoes
Rapini - first blanched in salted water, then sauteed in olive oil and garlic

cjsadler - I second the request for your gnocchi & sauce recipe (or link to published recipe)

I modified a Cook's Illustrated recipe a little. Totally quick enough for a weeknight meal as long as the ricotta is ready.

For the gnocchi:
1 lb ricotta
1/4 cup panko
1 egg
1/2 cup grated parmesian
1 tsp salt
pepper
6 T flour
minced oregano (or whatever herb)

If you've got good, thick ricotta from Cowgirl Creamery or somewhere, you're good to go. Otherwise, drain your ricotta for a few hours by wrapping it in cheesecloth (I hung mine in the fridge over a bowl) or layering some coffee filters in a strainer.

Stir up the ricotta to loosen it up a bit and smooth it out.

Mix in the egg*

Add everything else and mix together. Put it in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up.

Flour a surface. Flour your hands. Grab a baseball size chunk of the 'dough' (if you can't roll it up into a reasonably coherent ball, add more panko and flour)

Roll out into a 'rope' with your hands, like you did when you were a kid with play-doh. Cut into bite size pieces.

Cook in just simmering, heavily salted water until the gnocchi float. Then cook 2 minutes more and throw them into your sauce.

Porcini sauce
Soak about 1.5 oz dried porcini** in about 1.5 cups very hot water for about 20 min
Saute a few minced shallots in butter until browned (along with a few hot pepper flakes if you like)
Deglaze with 1/4 cup white wine, let reduce a bit
Add the mushroom water and reduce a lot
Add 1/2 cup cream and reduce to sauce consistency
Chop fine and add back in the rehydrated porcini mushrooms
Season. Add some chopped parsley.... maybe a dash of balsamic if the sauce needs a bit more acid.

*Maybe mixing the ricotta and egg together using a mixer with a whisk attachment would result in even lighter gnocchi? Something to experiment with.
**A substitute I frequently use is dried shiitakes from the Asian supermarkets-- very cheap compared to dried porcini.

What reason did they give for adding the panko? I have made them without before and am trying to figure out what they would add.

They actually called for making your own breadcrumbs, but I don't know if they explained that addition. I think it was mainly to help the gnocchi keep their structure (by soaking up some of the ricotta moisture) while minimizing gluten (i.e., instead of just using all flour). Maybe?

Eco-Friendly chicken marinated in salted buttermilk, rolled in seasoned flour and pan fried
Mashed potatoes
Braised collard greens

2005 Dom. Robert Perroud Brouilly

CJS: The gnocchi look fantastic. One of my favorite things, too.

I assume the ingredient makes it easier to manipulate the dough, but I agree it's unnecessary.

I recommend the method offered in The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. The mixture is very light, incorporating no flour or breadcrumbs at all, just ricotta, Parm, egg, salt and a little melted butter. I like a bit of fresh sage as suggested. Whip like crazy.

What I love about the method: take a jelly roll baking pan or large rimmed dish and blanket it thickly with flour. Pretend the flour is oil in a pan in which you're about to fry meatballs, i.e. let it rise up at least 1/4 inch deep. Then, take about 1 1/2 t of the cheese and roll the ball around in the flour to shape it into an egg. Continue. The flour should coat the gnocchi, creating a thin outer layer that helps them retain their shape while the dumpling inside remains incredibly tender and light.

After forming all the gnocchi, transfer them to a plate and firm them up in the fridge.

The porcini sauce looks delicious. I usually just go with melted butter, more sage and Parm.

Pan fried chicken.
Salad with greens, dried cranberries, red onion, and goat cheese, marjoram vinaigrette.
Biscuits.
Gingerbread with candied ginger and whipped cream.

Last night was improvised pork tacos, made from a hunk of leftover pork shoulder simmered in the crockpot for several hours with some chicken broth. Once it started to fall apart, I added some salsa verde I had in the refrigerator and a little barbecue sauce and heated a while longer. Quite good served in big flour tortillas with shredded lettuce, halved grape tomatoes, grated cheddar, and low-fat sour cream.

Forgot to add: served with more of the leftover pinquito beans and Mexican rice. (The rice was a combination of recipes from two different Mexican cookbooks. I hadn't really thought about it, but I was a little surprised to find recipes called "Mexican rice" in Mexican cookbooks.)

Just the ticket for a tableful of teenaged vegetarians:
Lasagna with homemade goat milk ricotta, mozzarella di bufala, spinach, and tomato/maitake mushroom sauce
Mixed green salad
Garlic-cheese toast

Blood orange tea cake

2004 Renzo Masi Chianti (for the grownups)

I've got to get back to posting some dinners here! I've been making:
Sopa di Mani-Bolivian peanut soup
Leek & Potato soup
Bittersweet chocolate chip cookies with roasted pecans, walnuts and dried cranberries
Flank steak-->flank steak with blue cheese crumbles entree salad
Beef bourguignon over egg noodles (homemade from Arlington market)
A melange of leftovers from the above

Kimchi hotpot with sliced pork belly, Chinese cabbage, tofu, nameko mushrooms, and chopped green onion
Steamed rice

Romaine salad dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Risotto (inspired by Last Nights Dinner )

Salad of red leaf lettuce, grape tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, alpohonso olives w/balsamic vinaigrette
Meatball subs on Marvelous Market baguette, with buffalo mozzarella

Crockpot kielbasa and sauerkraut
Pierogies with sour cream
(visited the Kielbasa Factory on Sat.)

Hamburgers with sharp cheddar cheese
French fries
mac and cheese
queso fundito
buckeye cake

Spaghetti with lime and rocket.

I first got this from a mailing list I'm on back in 2000. I think about making it more often than I do. It seems harder to make in theory than when I actually go ahead and prepare it. Searching around reveals a copy of the recipe here, at the bottom of page 1/top of page 2.

Bought some fresh, wild caught Icelandic haddock at Costco today. Made fish chowder--in order to appeal to Veggie-teen, who will eat fish but not bacon, I sauteed the onion in butter and seasoned the chowder with smoked salt--Alderwood smoked sea salt from Washington State, purchased at Arlington Whole Foods (in the cheese department). The smokiest smoked salt I have encountered since the last of my late lamented McCormick hickory smoked salt went by the way. Fish stock, potatoes, parsnip, aromatic herbs, half and half. Delicious. Served with storebought biscuits and a cucumber salad. For dessert--Florida strawbs from Costco, which are huge, but juicy and very sweet and flavorful, macerated in sugar and served over leftover blood orange cake, with vanilla creme fraiche.

With the fish chowder, I had a Spanish riesling (!) I bought at Arlington Whole Foods--for $5.99. Imported by Jocelyn Cambier--from the same folks that make Don Salvador Monastrell, according to the sign. Actually quite decent for the price. A teeny bit of funk on the nose, but refreshing and dry. I'm going to go back and buy some more to use for an everyday white, and for cooking.

An old standard, lentil soup.

Basic recipe, nice and comforting as I sit down to watch the new episode of the Wire.

Inspired by the latest Food & Wine magazine, I made a version of their recipe for italian sausage with apples:

Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage sauteed with sliced granny smith apples
Polenta with cheddar cheese

I think I would have liked the recipe better with regular Italian sausage made from pork. However, I was lazy this weekend and didn't want to make an extra trip so had to go with what Trader Joe's carried. I like the combination of flavors and it was a super quick dinner to put together on a weeknight.

Picadillo chicken over long grain steamed rice, herb salad with blue cheese and grape tomatoes.

I looked the recipe up and bookmarked it. Thanks for the idea.

I found a 2 lb. bag of shrimp that I had forgotten about, so on Saturday night I used half of it to make shrimp linguini in a spicy tomato-chili sauce. It was actually an Emeril Lagasse recipe, and it really didn't need any modifications. Between the dry rub for the shrimp (which contained a hefty portion of cayenne) and the diced jalapenos in the sauce, it had some excellent heat. Yum!

The remaining pound of shrimp went into another pasta dish--this time with fusilli and arugula (and, of course, some olive oil, shallots, garlic, and white wine), and the recipe coming from the lovely Giada. Much lighter, in both flavor and caloric content, than the previous concoction--but still very tasty. Boyfriend found the arugula to be overpoweringly bitter, but he was pacified with some grated parmesan cheese.

Tonight will be pork chops with chipotle butter (found on Serious Eats, I think), probably with a salad and baked potatoes.

Tofu dengaku : momendofu from the tofu shop (!), pressed and grilled, then topped with a miso mixture and sesame seeds and grilled again briefly. I used the dengaku miso recipe from Shizuo Tsuji's "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art," an excerpt of which is available online (and for which I am grateful because I was too stupid to pack our copy of the book when I moved ).
Steamed rice tossed with shungiku (chrysanthemum greens), sesame oil, and sesame seeds.

Check out the pizza thread for more info.

Wow, Dan, those look totally delicious! I don't suppose you ship internationally.

Mom's retro meatloaf* (made with Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable soup) with spicy ketchup
Mashed potatoes
Broccolini with garlic
Mixed green salad

2004 Dom. Lucien Lardy Fleurie

*I hadn't made this in ages, and had forgotten how tasty it is. I grew up eating it--it's a recipe my mother got from a soup can label or a women's magazine sometime during the 1950's. Really simple to make. An extra bonus was the way Jonathan's face lit up when he heard that that was what I had made for dinner.

$5,000, plus expenses.
Recipe? I'm sure Campbell's won't mind.

Dan, those pizzas really do look great. Noticed bags of finely ground semolina at Rodman's and may pick up one soon based on your recommendation.

Zora, ever had tomato soup cake? One of the best things about picnics when I was a kid.

* * *
This past month, I've mostly been eating vegetarian meals or preparing soups and quiches that require just a little meat for flavoring. So very A2 of me, I actually used up a jar of millet I bought ages ago to bake whole wheat bread.

Finally broke down and picked up some bacon and chicken thighs this weekend. There was half of a Spanish chorizo in the fridge, so...
Paella

I really like the recipe, though I used the Arborio rice I had on hand and roasted the peppers in advance. Made a few adjustments, too, both to accommodate the addition of chorizo and to follow José Andres's instructions for preparing a sofrito since I adore lots of caramelized onions. (Malawry's tip: sofrito is great as a condiment for a Spanish tortilla.) The whole cloves of garlic are wonderful mushed into the finished dish.

For some reason March is Frozen Food Month. I started early w frozen artichoke hearts and haricot verts (better than peas!) from Trader Joe's. Rick Bayless recommends the fire-roasted diced tomatoes from Muir Green during winter months. Perfect. Saffron is one of those flavors I used to despise, but during the past couple of years I've grown to love it with rice.

1 1/4 - 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef or ground turkey (Mom's version was with beef, but I've made it many times successfully with ground turkey)
1 large or extra large egg
1/3 cup cracker meal or matzo meal mixed with
1/3 cup milk
1 can Campbell's Veg Veg soup, undiluted
Several dashes Worcestershire Sauce
More cracker meal to dust on top.

Allow cracker meal-milk mixture to thicken. Add all ingredients together and mix well. Spread into a rectangular casserole dish. (I've never done this as a "mounded" loaf--it's usually too soft.) Sprinkle top with cracker meal. Bake in 375 oven until firm in center--25-30 minutes. Drain off some of the fat. Serve with ketchup mixed with some hot sauce.


Not knowingly. I have had red velvet cake. But I did miss out on many echt middle-American delicacies, like hot dish, when I was a kid. I ate a lot of knishes, kasha-varnishkes and kreplach.

I think you meant to say Muir Glen. Trader Joe's used to have their own house brand fire-roasted tomatoes, but stopped carrying it. Not enough people bought it. Mystifying, since the Muir Glen product is so popular, and the TJ's was every bit as good, and cheaper.

Whoa! How did I miss this? Anyway, thanks for the recipe. My potato gnocchi can be inconsistent and rather lead-like. I will try these.
Zora (anyone)- how would you rate Eco's chickens? I buy meat from them, most recently my favorite is lamb rib chops. I feel like they're a real treat and worth every penny. But the chicken, well, I'm having a harder time justifying the cost, which is about 4x as much as say Coscto (where I've gotten large meaty rotisserie chicken for $5) or at any of the usual large markets.
Thanks for your thoughts- I really want to try one but the last time I had one of their chickens in my hand, I looked at the almost $20 cost and put it back

I do occasionally buy a Costco rotisserie chicken, but I find them in general to be overcooked and dry. I used to buy chickens there, but haven't in a long time. I'm trying to eat less factory-farmed meat. But I hear you about the cost of Eco-Friendly. They have two different kinds of chickens--the "Naked Neck" chickens are a chicken-turkey hybrid, and these tend to be the really big, expensive ones. Occasionally, Bev will have half-chickens of those for sale. I have found their meat to be a bit tough. I usually look for a small one of his "Pasture Pure" chickens, which can be $13 or $14. They are very tasty. It's sort of too bad that Cibola has stopped bringing fresh chickens to the market. They were smaller and more reasonably priced, and equally tasty. Bev told me that they got scared off by the farmer at the Charlottesville market who was arrested for processing his own chickens in an uninspected facility--which is what Cibola was doing, too.

I am not a fan of their chicken. Their poussin, on the other hand, is un-freaking-real.

This was quite a tasty meal, though the descriptions make it sound a bit cluttered. Saying salad, pork and rice, and bread would be a lot more succinct .

Salad of baby arugula, grape tomatoes, cucumber, red and yellow bell pepper strips, extra-sharp cheddar, croutons; balsamic vinaigrette
Braised [leftover] cubed pork shoulder with red onions, garlic, red and yellow bell pepper, pickapeppa and soy sauces; served over whole grain rice blend* cooked in anise-scented mushroom broth, mixed with sliced mushrooms; all topped with toasted sliced almonds
Marvelous Market rustic boule with soy spread


*Rice Select Royal Grain: brown and red rice, barley, and rye berries, with additional red rice remaining from another container.

Nutella and sliced green apple sandwich on toasted 15 grain bread. I'm sick and that's the only thing that had appeal.

Broiled marinated shark; marinade was soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, sugar, ginger, and garlic
Steamed Chinese cabbage
Kinpira gobou

Stefanie, your posts are my absolute favorites.

Quick and easy dinner last night:
Pan-seared salmon over lentils

It's the week leading up to my birthday, and that means it's a week of extravagance! Starting with the pizza shown above, and moving on to:

Chicken roasted and crisped in my wonderful convection oven, then tossed in butter and thyme. Oh, and did I mention I stuffed truffles under the skin? I wanted to rub myself in the pan so I'd never stop smelling like this dish.



Burgers mixed with coarsely diced truffles, served on sliced batard and topped with melted parmesan, bacon, and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. The ketchup and mustard in the background were for my wife's much more conventional burger. Also, those are HOMEMADE tater tots (also filled with truffles) fried in clarified butter.

Aw, thanks. I appreciate the props.

Dinner tonight was buta kimuchi, thinly sliced pork belly simmered with kimchi. Inspired by a version we'd had out, we topped it with cheese, so it was actually buta kimuchiizu. It was darn tasty, too. Sides were steamed organic brown rice, miso soup with wakame and a boatload of sliced shiitake, and rice-bran-pickled daikon.

Bittman's Asparagus Risotto, topped with fried eggs
leftover arugula salad