Last night's "seder" for the non-Jews (+1 MOT who decided Passover wasn't going to be celebrated this year) included:

Salad with red wine vinaigrette
Matzo ball soup (best batch ever made on my stove)
Matzo lasagna (even with 3 pounds of beef, there isn't enough left to really consider it leftovers)
Roasted asparagus
Homemade Passover Chocolate Mousse Cake with fresh raspberries (absolutely incredible)

Wines were a melange of Gamla Cabernet Sauvignon, Baron Herzog Chenin Blanc, Muratie Shiraz, a Zinfandel and a Pinot which I wasn't drinking so missed the labels, and a bottle of Korbel from the 2005 inauguration (brought over from my one favored Republican friend).

All in all a rousing success - I'm still tackling dishes!

Pappardelle with Pancetta, Asparagus and Pine Nuts -- the Apr 06 Bon Appetit cover recipe.
*
Has anyone else tried this recipe? Did I miss a step or two? First you brown garlic in 2 TBS of oil, then you saute pancetta, which releases a lot of oil. Then you add 1 cup of water?! I drained most of the oil 'cause I don't enjoy third-degree burns. Second, after you saute the rabe/asparagus you add pasta cooking water? Since the pan is covered, isn't there already enough water leftover from steaming the rabe. Third, you add more oil (2 TBS) to the finished product? Isn't there enough oil in this thing? What did I miss?

(* Okay, the image is small; at least it's not blurry. )

I really enjoyed it! I cut back the oil a bit at the start, and didn't put any additional oil on at the end. I think most of the water evaporated for me in cooking the broccoli rabe, etc. so it didn't seem too soupy. If you liked the overall flavor combo, maybe try again w/ less oil and water?

I too liked it. And I did cut back on the oil and water. It seems that the recipe raised red flags for you as well. But I just couldn't get over adding 1C of water to 2+ TBS of oil. I felt that I made too many alterations to the original recipe. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Roast Salmon, a bed of french green lentils, a pillow of sauted green beans, and a blanket of tomato relish

I bought some King salmon from Eastern Market, perhaps some of the most succulent salmon I've ever had.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Smoked salmon and ramp cheese on matzah
Micro Greens with a roasted tomato, roasted shallot and balsamic vinagrette
Pasadica chocolate covered marshmellow logs

Homemade orrichiete pasta with green garlic, leeks, dandelion greens, porcini powder and cannelini beans (a la Mario Batali)

La Tur with figs and Medjool dates

2003 Burson Ravenna Rosso, a "tooth-stainer" purchased at Wine Expo in Santa Monica (Roberto Rogness' store, for anyone who reads Mark Squires' Wine Board).

The pasta was a little bit heavy, but the sauce was really good--hard to believe there was no meat or chicken stock in it.

bread pudding with asparagus, morels and fontina, from deborah madison, from her farmer's market book.

this is a rich, hearty dish and it shows off the asparagus well, better than the morels, which are almost wasted given their expense. also, it takes some experience to get the milk to bread ratio exactly where it should be. however, there are several possible detours from the main recipe. chopped mushrooms are sauteed with shallots in butter, and these could work tossed with the cooked asparagus and pasta. green garlic is steeped in the milk for the pudding, and you could use it to poach some chicken; i am also thinking of playing around with it to cook some arborio rice. actually, green garlic is the ingredient that led me to this recipe. i am planning on fixing the offshoots next week, unless something unexpectedly exciting arises at the market on sunday, which warms up slowly this time of year.

Pasta shells with roasted shallots and asparagus tossed with a creamy Bleu d'Auvergne*
KitKat wafer bar

*The blue was full-bodied, salty, and slightly tangy. One of those stand-over-the-kitchen-sink-eating-with-a-knife type cheeses. It's a shame when your recent orgasmic experiences are all food induced.

Fresh fettuccine tossed with sauteed black radishes, favas, pecorino, cream and crisped proscuitto strips
Green bean salad with balsamic and roasted cherry tomatos

The favas are just starting to taste good...

TMI

What?! You've never had a meal that makes you weak in the knees?! Some food item that you would cut into with a rusty knife 'cause it rocks your world?! A food experience that makes you cry out "Oh My God"?! A morsel of food that sends shivers up and down your spine?! The anticipation of a taste of something that makes your whole body quiver?!

Oh puh-leeze!

According to Ruth Reichl: "Food is the new sex." Or, find my thread: "Food is what sex used to be".

"Food, like a loving touch or a glimpse of divine power, has that ability to comfort." Norman Kolpas

For dinner tonight, paella (made for the 1st time)--salt cod, raisins, and spincach.
Steamed asparagus w/citrus vinaigrette
chocolate goat cheese (yum--if you haven't tried you really should)

Jennifer L.

Charcoal grilled spice crusted pork tenderloin
Sauteed beet greens
Semolina egg pasta ribbons* with green garlic, fava beans and basil

Pear and blackberry crisp with vanilla ice cream

2000 Domaine de Montpezat Prestige Languedoc (60% cab 40% syrah)

*thin sliced leftover semolina crepes that I made on Saturday for mushroom manicotti

I've never heard of this before. Tell us more. Is it homemade or store-bought. If the latter, where'd you get it.

Jill at Cheesetique carries it.

You have to really like sweet cheeses - I didn't care for it all that much, as it reminded me of chocolate-flavored cream cheese.

I think it tastes like chocolate cheesecake; it is definitely sweet.

Jennifer L

Caipirinha Beleza Pura.
Selection of cheeses from last night's Nat'l Geo tasting.
Tomato salad with onions and bell peppers, in a vinaigrette of Jake Parrott's remarkable Rozendal vinegar.
Potatoes au gratin.
Grilled leg-of-lamb, thinly sliced.
Watermelon slices.

G'night!

Charcoal-grilled boneless leg of lamb, marinated for seven days in yogurt, lemon, onion and herbs (I had planned to cook it Friday, but it turned out we had to go early to the chorus concert at school and then we went away for the weekend.) The texture of the outer edge of the meat may have suffered a bit from the long marination, but it was really delicious.
Veggie-teen's main was charcoal roasted crimini mushrooms drizzled with Meyer lemon oil and stuffed with Nicoise olive, roasted garlic and feta cheese.
Israeli cous-cous with duxelle of oyster mushrooms
Haricots verts with roasted garlic and Meyer lemon oil

Salad of mache, baby romaine, and Middle Eastern cucumber

2000 Domaine la Soumade Rasteau, Cuvee Confiance (a bottle recently discovered in the bargain bin at Calvert Woodley--an extraordinary find). Gorgeous fragrant, mouth-filling fruit with a spine of sweet tannin that was a perfect foil for the grilled lamb. Too bad there was only one bottle there.

(I can't believe this is my 500th post, but it's gotta happen sometime. Here goes.)

Sunday, for the first time, I successfully prepared... tofu!

Threw together a marinade loosely based on something Bobby Flay did once with shrimp: soy sauce, fish sauce, ginger, garlic, scallions, oil, lime juice, jalapenos, and a few rehydrated red chilies, all in the food processor. Took extra-firm tofu, sliced, and pressed it between two cutting boards for about an hour, then let it soak up the marinade for another hour or two. Set the tofu slices on paper towels to get excess moisture off and fried them in a little bit of hot oil while I steamed up some green beans. Then I heated the marinade to concentrate it a little and served that as a sauce.

Turned out great! Especially with a little extra plum sauce for dipping -- the sweet was very nice with the hot. Will definitely make it again.

tonight was an experiment with gelatin

Malpeque oysters with cubes of watermelon gelee(variation of Jose Andreas recipe)
Tomato gelee with parmesan bavrois and aged balsamic (total ripoff of Frank Ruta)
Kiwi slices embedded in Prosecco Gelatin (a few recipes put together)

IN THE YEAR 2000 ALL FOODS WILL COME IN GELATIN FORM. IN THE YEAR 2000...

Three cheese calzones (ricotta, parm, mozz) with tomato dipping sauce

And chocolate, ancho chili and espresso pots de creme. A recipe from Allison at Bluebell, a Philly restaurant I really like. The ancho and espresso flavors were dynamite with the chocolate.

Seared NY strip steak, with broccoli and cubed, roasted butternut squash sprinkled with salt, pepper and rosemary. I don't have a grill so I used the cast iron grill pan. I need to work on my indoor steak grilling, or perhaps buy thinner strip steaks. This was 2 inches thick (maybe a little more!) and in a 500 degree oven, after searing it on the stove-top for 4 minutes a side, it was still really rare after 10 minutes. I'm fine with rare steak (my preference!) but the +1 is more a medium rare guy. Any tips?

Make sure that the meat is at room temperature before you cook it.

asparagus baked in pockets of prosciutto and fontina, from marcella hazan, accompanied by steamed new potatoes with garlic chives and olive oil. you probably shouldn't eat this too often, but it really is good, and you don't need to use as much butter as specified in the recipe.

Thanks Zora! I had the steak out for half an hour prior to cooking but a steak that thick probably takes a bit longer.

Last night's dinner was perfect: toasted everything bagels with lox, whitefish salad and Temptee whipped cream cheese. Temptee is a Breakstone product, and I've never seen it around here but it's everywhere in NJ where my family is from. It's my taste of home, and far preferable than the Philly whipped cream cheese. My friend's dad owns a kosher store in VA Beach, and she brought me back a container when she went for Passover. Bagels, lox and whitefish from Calvert Woodley, and I was in heaven!

Last night was perfect weather for grilling out:

Duck Liver Pate
Cowboy Ribeye from Cheesetique (50% off!)
Grilled zucchini and squash with parprika and a little madras curry
'Cashel and Custard Sundae' -- lemon meringue custard (from the godmother), cashel blue, and a little grated nutmeg and honey

Music: The Beach Boys' SMiLE and Pet Sounds (made all the better when the train came through Old Town right on cue)

In recognition of Cinco de Mayo:

Jicama with lime juice and pasilla chile powder
Guacamole
Pico de Gallo
Sopes with frijoles refritos and feta cheese
Chorizo
Rajas de poblanos

2005 Akakies Kir Yianni Rose (beer/wine, beer/wine, beer/wine? Wine won--this worked).

Sugared strawberries with whipped cream

Charcoal-grilled yellowfin tuna burgers with wasabi-lime mayonnaise and grilled onion
Jicama slaw
Pan-crisped potato wedges*

2004 Glatzer Gruner Veltliner

*I've done this a few times recently, and it satisfies the family's craving for fries without lots of oil being poured and heated up. I microwave a russet potato or two until just soft. Then cut in quarters, lengthwise, leaving the skin on. I dust the cut sides of the potato wedges with my pre-made spice rub (Spanish paprika, ancho powder, garlic powder, ground cumin, ground oregano, salt and black pepper) and fry them in a little bit of olive oil until brown and crisp on all sides.

A late dinner to go with watching Iron Chef.

Salad of greens from the Dupont farmer's market

Pasta al'Amatriciana

Olive oil and polenta cakes with balsamic-basil marinated strawberries

Pasta with fiddlehead ferns*, wild oyster mushrooms**, favas*** and Pecorino
Spice-crusted, charcoal grilled sirloin
Green salad
Sugared strawberries from Heinz's stand at Dupont market

2004 Seghesio Zinfandel, Sonoma County


*fiddleheads from Maine, purchased at Trader Joe's in Bailey's Crossroad

**Gathered in Battery Kemble, while walking the dog.

***favas were purchased at Super H yesterday, the nicest ones I've seen this year.

The mushrooms given to me at the farmer's market (Dupont Circle) were my first oyster mushrooms. I diced them, sauteed them in butter. Salt and pepper. Squeeze of lemon. Amazing!!! Lucky you!

* * *
Another Spring thing:

Long-stemmed globe artichoke alla Romana
Spaghetti carbonara with ramps (wonderful)
Grapefruit with strawberries

Stopped in at BlackSalt and Bassin's today:

Linguine with alfredo sauce and Blackpearl salmon
Gulf brown shrimp scampi
Roasted asparagus with Meyer lemon oil

Mango buttermilk panna cotta with blackberry coulis (the buttermilk was from Adam, the milk seller at Dupont market. This was real buttermilk, the by-product of making butter, not cultured like commercial buttermilk you get in a grocery store. Very sweet, and had not had all the cream separated out.)

With the meal, we drank a 2004 Gobelsburger Gruner Veltliner--OMG it was good (incredibly reasonable, too, at $10.99) and this was the very last bottle. They can't get more--the vintage is completely sold out, according to Mike the new German-Austrian consultant at Bassin's.

Good old fashioned Italian-American linguini with sausage and red sauce and a generous topping of parmagiano reggiano.

Friday:

split roast chicken
Cajun wafflecut carrots

Saturday:

more chicken
roasted asparagus

Sunday:

soy-glazed chicken thighs (from All About Braising)
roasted broccoli

Good simple stuff. Well, the braised thighs have about 83 ingredients, but the actual cooking is simple, anyway.

For mother's day --
Bean ravioli in brown butter balsamic sauce
Pureed carrot soup
Pork tenderloin, mashed parsnips and asparagus with a reduced stock sauce.
Shoofly pie and vanilla ice cream.

another mothers day menu

Grilled whole black sea bass - reallllly good, we briefly washed/marinated/rubbed it with a mixture of white wine, olive oil, garlic, black sea salt and oregano, and grilled 8 mins on each side

with...

Grilled asparagus, portobellos and eggplant

and a nice 1999 Barolo

Dessert was some sponge cups filled with fresh fruit and whipped cream

Lunch technically, but yesterday we feasted on roasted garlic stuffed pork shoulder sandwiches. Butterflied pork shoulder covered in a mix of garlic, Italian parsley, EVOO, salt, pepper, and fresh rosemary, then rolled and tied. Roasted in the oven at 225F for about 6 hours. Served with freshly baked rosemary focaccia.

Served with 2004 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Granges.

mdt's factual report leaves out one very important detail -- It was freakin' delicious!

Cardoon flan: I ran a vegetable peeler along the cardoon stalks to destring them somewhat before chopping and parboiling. However, when they were tender and no longer bitter, they were still a bit stringy. My original plan had been to make a bechamel and bake them in a gratin. But then I thought about pureeing them in my Vita-Mix, which is powerful enough to turn plywood into a smooth puree. And I tossed in some shallot, three eggs, some creme fraiche, salt and white pepper and poured the resulting puree into a buttered casserole and baked it in a bain marie until done. It was a pretty pale green, very delicate tasting and quite good. Not a whole lot of artichoke flavor, though. Next time, I'll add some artichoke hearts.

Polyface loin end pork chop, pan-seared and oven finished, pan reduction sauce with rosemary, sage and garlic.
Homemade quince mostarda
Polenta

Fennel slaw with lemon vinaigrette

2003 Blisss Maremma Sangiovese

Braised baby bok choy
Grilled Asian Pork Chops (very easy, VERY tasty marinade from Epicurious - black bean sauce, lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, fresh ginger - which I didn't have but threw in some powdered ginger - YUM)
Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

For those instances when I need fresh ginger, and don't have any in good enough condition to use, I keep a bottle of The Ginger People brand Ginger Juice in my fridge. It is an excellent product and keeps for a year or more. I get it at Balducci's.

i'm not convinced we scored the best cardoons in the land from the dupont farmer's market, or that you can even successfully grow them in this area. however, i do believe i was lucky to receive the least fibrous of the bunch, from the descriptions i have read here. i agree that you lose the artichoke flavor if you go much beyond the boiling stage, so i am a bit perplexed by the recipes i have found. those in the silver spoon entirely envelop the vegetable with some strong flavors, although the gratin i adapted from a flawed recipe in that book tasted good, just not like artichoke. a number of sources recommend boiling cardoons for two hours. what kind of vegetable can stand up to that? not the cardoons i had.

Another Mother's Day report.....

Since Dad is the least likely one to try something new, I had to cover my bases.

Chilean Sea Bass, Halibut, or Mahi Mahi on a bed of briefly sautéedred and yellow pepper, red onion and swiss chard, all cooked en papillote, Diver scallops seared in butter and olive oil and new potato roasted with rosemary and garlic cloves.

Dad had the Halibut and it was a success. Mom had the Mahi Mahi; it was a little over done as it was the thinnest of the bunch - but that's how she's used to it . I had the Sea Bass, quite moist. All were from Up Stream Seafood in Silver Spring, and all were a hit.

Dessert was Strawberry Cream Cake from the recent Cooks Illustrated, another success.

Batali's recipe?

Yep

For Mother's Day, in memory of my mother-in-law, we had her specialty: crab cakes.

Last night, another of her favorites:

Soft shell crabs with Lemon Butter Sauce
Pan-seared shrimp marinated in garlic, shallots, pepper flakes, parsley, olive oil & lemon juice
Risotto alla Milanese
Asparagus roasted with parmesan & lemon peel

2004 Chateau Bellevue la Foret
1996 Comaine Moreau & Fils Chablis Grand Cru Les Close

We had another great dinner at Bangkok 54, the place is amazing and never fails to impress.

For App's we had

Kanom Jeep
House Special Duck Roll
Cellophane-Noodle Salad

Dinner
54's Spicy Roasted Duck
Crispy Whole Fish with Spicy chili garlic sauce with fresh basil
Pad Cha From The Sea
Pad Thai with Shrmip

2 Mango margarita, a few glasses of Trimbach Gewurztraminer and Tyrell Moore’s Creek Shiraz