Sea Bass and smashed potatoes

Thursday jan 28 - Watchin "inglorious basterds" with a gift from our neighbor (a very nice Vouvray), and potato crusted sea bass, with sweet and potato mash, asparagus. the last pic is the sea bass the alternating sweet and potato slices (wafer thin) seared on the potato side, but before it went in the oven to cook the fish (400 for about 16 minutes). the first pic is the done fish with a white sauce made from a tunch of the Vouvray, butter, shallots and some 1/2 and 1/2, s and p and fresh dill

free form lasagne with acorn squash puree and parmesean bechamel

recipe coming soon - a great way to eat some squashs

Phyllo pie, cont'd

The hommade Filo was brilliant! i found it much easier to work with actually than store bought, and it tasted so nice, not all crazy flakey off every direction like the store bought. here's the recipe - also, i assembled pie and froze, and baked when i had a party. it worked wonderfully...

Phyllo dough

2 1/2 c unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 t salt

2 T olive oil

1 T red wine vinegar

mix as you would pasta dough - make a well, inc the wet into the dry. when you have a dough, knead until smooth about 10 minutes. cover with plastic and let rest for 1 hour. here, you can also freeze for future use..

divide dough, and roll into approx 2 oz balls. roll each dough til translucent thin, and layer in pie pan, or rectangular pan. you only need 2 layers on bottom and 2 on top, as this dough is much thicker than commercial. Then fill pie with whatever filling you like (or see below, its deelishy) then fold overhanging dough from bottom to enclose pie over the top, and add one sheet over that. at this point, can wrap and freeze, or bake @ 350 for about 45 minutes or until top is nicely browned. (for more detail, saveur magazine issue #24, page 67)...

we had a greek dinner party and served the spinch artichoke pie with lentil soup (below scroll way back) and white bean dip with fresh bread, and a big greek salad.

white bean dip is the greatest if you have guests a coming and nothing prepared. always keep a can of white beans in the pantry.

Method:

toss into food processor

1 can white beans

1 clove garlic

salt and fresh ground pepper

1 -2 T olive oil

2 T fresh lemon juice

(toss in some fresh herbs if you have any (optional though)

bits of thyme parsley or and rosemary all good, about 1 t of each)

Bleeeeend that up. thins with T of water, if needed.

taste, adjust seasoning and scoop into bowl. garnish with chopped up red pepper bits and lemon slices et viola, your guests wil lrave and healthy too!

Greek PIE

Making homemade filo dough, it's pretty easy and pretty fun. Freezing assebled pie to bake off on saturday...so will report how it tastes then...

Filling was spinach and Artichoke:

1 med sweet onion, diced

3 t dried dill (or five fresh)

2 T olive oil

squish of lemon juice if handy

fresh ground pepper

saute onions and spice in olive oil til translucent

add

1 10oz bag fresh spinach, chopped

1 14oz can artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and chopped

saute til spinach is just wilted

remove from heat and stir in 10 oz feta and 3-4 oz grated cheddar

mix in 2 beaten eggs (and some fresh parsley if handy - optional)

at this point i assembled and froze...crust recipe and directions to follow

A really good za!

Today we made a damn good pizza.

fresh crust, fresh sauce...fresh arugula garlic and tomatoes.....

and XXXXXXXXXXtra cheeeeeeeeeeese.

Burn some incense, suck some peppermints, and go

If you granola crispy, and in big clumps, this is the one. Click on image to enlarrrrrrrge

thanksgiving 2009

Dan's 50th bday WC fields choc cake...a great butterhorn dinner roll recipe (from saveur magazine, a very nice dough to work with)

but the highlight, without a doubt, is Salinger, and watching him eat his vittles...

Brokeback mountain chicken dinner with friends

Really fun dinner party last night, recipes to follow...the best chicken recipe we've ever made...i think cuz we broke the chickens back it really did result in much more even beautiful cooking.

Ken and Stacey brought this mask for us...brilliant for tommys halloween costume.

Also we made the most delicious brussel sprouts recipe...

yams. they are beautiful and I can't stop drawing them

Fun to have Tommy back home...last night he's prepping chickens for a dinner party tonight...breaking their backbones out. It looks like performing Shiatsu on the chickens...meanwhile i'm still drawing sweet potatoes.

When my mom called and i told her this she said "what is so interesting about potatoes?"

more tomorrow after meal...

Jack Daniels Gelato

THis is one nice gelato. You do need an ice cream machine, though....make the custard, chill it, then freeze in an ice cream maker. When it's soft serve consistency, put in tupperware,cover top of cream directly with plastic wrap, and freeze. may need to soften out of the freezer for a minute or two before serving.

Painting by my dad, Louis Burrows.

Note - third line of recipe should have parentheses, meaning you can add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar to the half and half, depending on your taste buds and how boozey you like your gelato.

Also, brown sugar would be fun to try.

call any vegetable vegetable burgerz

form into patties and dip both sides in flour, then fry in a pan. I like these on a good bun, with mayo or 1000 island, tomato, lettuce, a slice o' red onion and a slab a cheddar cheese. Deeeelish.

What a pumpkin!

Fall is here, just like that.

Missing Tommy who is working in LA, warm, sunshiny...meanwhile here the weather has done a complete 180 just like it's bound to do at this time - summer out, heaters kicked on. Invited Harry over - the only thing you can do is make soup.

This particular soup, I believe, contains healing powers. I made it the day after an upsetting phone call with a good friend, who'd told me his mom had passed away. Feeling a bit helpless, but wanting to help somehow I made some soup and left it by his door. I figured it might offer comfort and warmth, as it was February, and I don't know. Anyway this soup was made in honor of Millie, Randy's mom. And maybe because of that it has healing alchemic powers. Or so I like to think....hey try it. If you are feeling sad, or lonely, or just chilly, make Millie's lentil soup. It'll warm yer cockles. Better still, make it for a friend.

Served it with a roasted beet salad, with caramelized walnuts, which was really delicious.

ROb's Birthday Napoleans

Really lovely father's day even though Tommy's root canal was killing him and his cheek was all puffed out. Dinner @ Rob and ALice's, deelish steak salad with fresh morel mushrooms, and Rob finally got his birthday "Napoleans on demand" that I had promised (with bing cherry sauce) though I went through a tiny bit of hell to get them made...then finished out the evening iwth a set of jazz by Hashimoto 5 at Simon's tavern. I couldn't thinka a nicer way to spend a sunday evening... 

Kenny, Stacey, and Black beans and rice

black beans

soak black beans (1# standard bag) in water overnight or bring to rolling boil and let stand for one hour. Here, i like to drain the beans, but that is optional.

In a large soup pan, saute 1 onion and about 4 cloves garlic, 1/2 - 1 jalapeno, 1/2 a green pepper in some olive oil. Saute til onions are translucent, add beans and 5 cups water and chicken boullion, or 5 c chicken stock. Add about 1/2 cup of tomato salsa (can be canned or jarred) 2 packets of goya sazon seasoning (contains cumin and annatto). Add some fresh chopped cilantro, fresh ground pepper, a bit of kosher salt, 2-3 bay leaves, 1 chopped tomato (if you'd like) a splish of red wine viegar and let simmer for about 1 1/2 hours....

then, mash some beans with a potato masher or take a can of black beans and food process and add to bean mixutre to thicken. Or add more stock or water if you need to thin. Taste and correct seasonings...a few splishes of hot sauce may be needed. Before serving, stir in generous handful chopped fresh cilantro...garnish with fresh cilantro and some cheese...serve with rice

Fiesta night last saturday with ken, stacey, irene and harry....

Beans rice chicken and flan...recipes following soon...

Flan Recipe

sugar syrup

1 cup sugar

3 T water

1/2 t cream of tartar

heavy saucepan, very clean

Custard

4 c 1/2 and 1/2

8 cardamom pods

zest of one large orange

dash of cinnamon

t of vanilla xtract

(or skip above and flavor however you'd like)

bring to boil, turn off, steep...

in bowl whisk

6 eggs

4 yolks

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

method coming soon...

Lousy Anna Red Beans and Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup

Today's secret ingredient is.....Fennel!!

Just call me Sardina

Some real tasty morsels!

(creativity is sometimes motivated by hunger and scrounging what's left in the cupboards)

Linguine with Sardines

Linguine noodles

1 tin sardines in olive oil

parsley, fresh

small onion

few cloves garlic

some white wine

butter

bread crumbs (find 2 old pieces of bread, and toast)

Saute onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil til translucent, (oh if you had a lemon, a squish of juice would be nice here) and add the sardines with their oil, and break up and stir. add a bit of white wine. Remove from heat. Stir in some fresh chopped parsley.

Meanwhile cook the linguine al dente.

toast the old bread and pulse in food processor with some butter (about a tblsp) and some more parsley, til crumby.

When pasta is ready, add a bit of the pasta water to your sardine mixture. Then, drain the linguine and toss with the sardines. Top with the buttered parsley bread crumbs and serve.

soooo delish. I like this even better than linguine with clam sauce, i must say. Tommy topped with fresh parmy, but i stuck to the italian guns and used no cheese.

Field trip to Lockport, IL!

Fun to hang with Kathy and Sam and their adorable kiddos Ben and Corrine, for a real Halloweeny apple picking wagon riding comfort country kinda day. MMMmmmmm, pie oh my, caramel sauce and ice cream. And a nice dessert wine from Bonny Doon Vineyards. And good coffee. And a cooooool breeze off the patio.

SO last night, the night after the picking, we were still in fall mode, and made the best acorn squash risotto. (I'm convinced you can pretty much puree any veg, toss it in a risotto, add some vino and cheese, and odds are, it's gonna taste good!

ACORN SQUASH RISOTTO:

1 onion, chopped

1 cup risotto

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

4 cups chix stock

1 cup pureed acorn squash (cut one large squash in half - cook one half upside down on sheet pan, puree the other)

dry white wine

1 tbsp mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup freshly grated parm, plus more to put on top

2 leaves fresh sage, diced

saute onion and garlic, then add rice, saute til translucent and rice is toasted. add wine, simmer til wine is absorbed. Add squash puree. begin to slowly add chix stock, stirring after each addition, as per regular risotto, til rice is al dente. Add cheeses, remove from heat and stir. Stir in sage. Scoop into precooked other squash half. Eat, and dig out bits of squash flesh with bits of risotto. So so good.

We ate it with asparagus and shitaki mushrooms, sauteed in butter.

Gettin a little nippy outside...need broccoli soup

Last night made Broccoli cheddar soup, tasted even better left over just now.

2 bunches broccoli

1 medium yellow onion

2 cloves garlic

2 tblsp butter

a bit of olive oil

In a sauce pan, melt the butter and olive oil, add the onion, chopped, and the garlic, and saute til translucent. add the broccoli, chopped, but reserve 1/2 of the florets from one of the bunches.

saute about 4 minutes more. Add about 1/2 cup dry white wine, saute a bit more. Add chicken or veg stock to cover the broccoli (approx 3 cups or so) and simmer until the broccoli is cooked through.

Cool.

Puree mixture in a food processor. Return to the pot. Add the broccoli florets back to the pot and return to a simmer, cook til the florets are done. Salt and pepper to taste, then whisk in cheddar cheese (or a mixture of cheeses) to taste. i like about a 1/2 cup of cheese. Whisk til the cheese is melted. Check seasonings. At this point, if the soup is too thick for your liking, thin with a bit of milk or cream. if it is a bit thin for your liking, add a bit of cornstarch mixed in a cup with some of the hot soup, and return to the pot and return to a boil for a minute. This will give a thicker,creamier texture.

Deelish. Warms ya up. Esp today when there is a big chill in my bones.

Ate with a simple salad of red leaf lettuce, red onions, honey crisp apple slices, walnuts, and the following vinaigrette:

1 tsp hazelnut oil

1- 2 T olive oil

1 tsp honey

salt

fresh grd pepper

About 1 T red wine (or white wine vinegar)

mix, correct seasoning, toss with salad.

serve with soup and crusty bread.