What Did You Eat?

Lunch at the French Laundry

This Sunday I had lunch at my favorite restaurant, the French Laundry, with Nancy and her husband Craig.  Any meal there is an event, but this was the first time I was able to get a reservation for lunch.  I've had dinner there twice, late in the evening.  I looked forward to lunch and strolling around Yountville, the town where the restaurant is located. 

The above photo is the French Laundry garden located across the street from the restaurant. I have a small garden in my back yard and I wish mine looked as well tended as this.   Like everything else connected with this restaurant, superb attention is paid to even the smallest details--including absolutely spotless weeding around the plants.

 

Winter Squash Soup

For Thanksgiving dinner, Nancy prepared a wonderful winter squash soup from Kathleen Stang's Pumpkins and Squash.  Unlike many squash soups, it was not overly sweet. I've seen some recipes calling for as many as 7 apples, which can overwhelm the squash.  This soup let the flavor of the squash speak for itself. The spices were subtle, but wafted up to my nose as I admired the pretty ceramic bowl holding the soup.   As there were children at the dinner who don't like chilies, Nancy didn't include the full amount of the jalapeno. I'll use the chili when I make it, but it tasted fine without it, if that is a concern.  Large homemade croutons and fried sage added on top of the soup just before serving would be a nice addition.

Creamy winter squash soup with spices 

4 pounds winter squash
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons fresh sage or 1/2 dried sage
1 1/2 teaspoons ground mace
3 tablespoons olive oil
1
1/2 minced jalapeno
1 large onion
1 tart apple, cored and chopped
3 14 ounce cans of chicken stock
salt and pepper
1 cup cream, sour cream, or yogurt
croutons or fresh sage

Preheat oven to 350.  Cut seeded squash in chunks and place cut side down on a baking sheet. Cook for 45-75 minutes  until very soft.  Cool, then scrape flesh from skins and mash the flesh.  Set aside.

While squash is baking, combine cumin and coriander in a dry pan and saute, stirring constantly until the spices change color and begin to smoke. Remove from heat immediately and put in a small bowl to cool.

In a heavy pan cook jalapeno for 5 minutes in the olive oil, then add spice mixture and apple.  Increase heat and stir constantly until the mixture begins to darken and becomes dry. Add broth and stir until ingredients are mixed together, scraping the bottom of the pan.  Stir in mashed squash and simmer for 30 minutes.  Blend soup in a food processor in several small batches.  Season with salt and pepper. Soup base can be frozen at this stage.

Put cream in a large bowl and gradually whisk in  one cup of hot soup.  Then gradually whisk in 2 more cups.  Gradually add more soup until the bowl feels warm, then return soup to the pan. 

Serve immediately or keep over very low heat. Do not boil.  Add croutons and fresh sage, if desired.   

Recovering

Thanksgiving was wonderful, but as usual I woke up with a huge food hangover.  It's not hard to understand why. I probably consumed a pound of butter distributed in various foods, including the four desserts that I ate.  So today I'm drinking a lot of tea. But, it's not just tea--it's TEA.  Fabulous tasting, fabulous smelling tea that my cousin Debbie thoughtfully mailed me from her home in Los Angeles.  She buys her tea there from a shop named Le Palais Des The's.  I can only imagine what it must be like to enter the shop. Debbie says the combined odor from the different teas is sensory heaven, and quite an effective sales devise.  The tea she sent me is outrageously aromatic, from the flowers and dried fruit combined in each blend.  They're soothing, and the best potpourri I've ever smelled.  Instead of high fat leftovers from Thanksgiving,  I have been drinking tea and don't feel deprived at all. 

My morning tea is The' du Hammam, pictured in the first photo.  A Turkish recipe, it blends green tea, orange and rose blossoms, green dates, and red fruits.

The' des Songes, a semi-fermented tea scented with flowers and exotic fruits is complex and slightly sweet.

The' des Aliz'es is the tea I drink all day long, cup after cup.  A green tea with flower petals, and pieces of kiwi, watermelon, and white peach, it refreshes me with it's light and slightly sweet flavor.

Melange du Cap is Debbie's favorite tea. This South African tea with pieces of cocoa bean and vanilla pod is low in caffeine and perfect at night.

Thank you for the tea, cousin Debbie! I wish Le Palais Des The's had a shop near me, but I will replenish my supply of the tea by mail.  And I look forward to visiting the shop in LA with you.   

 

      

The day before Thanksgiving

A month ago my friend Nancy showed up for our weekly coffee date carrying a large William's Sonoma bag.  She handed it to me and said, "Here's your work!"  Inside I found a sunflower cake pan and a box of butterscotch streusel cake mix.  It was obvious that I was the person bringing cake to Nancy's Thanksgiving dinner.

And so today, I baked the sunflower cake.  I don't bake cakes very often, but when I do, I don't use a cake mix. Well, that sounds defensive.  Actually, when you consider that these particular mixes are almost like making a cake from scratch, it's no surprise that they work well.  For this cake, I used two sticks of butter, four eggs, vanilla, and milk.  The mix provided the flour, the sugar, and the streusel.  Since it was a sunflower cake and wanting it to be yellow, I added food coloring to the batter.  Usually, cooking is very relaxing for me. Not this time.  The color of the cake looked an alarming day glow orange when I peeked at it in the oven. I tried to remember if I had ever seen sunflowers in that color.  And I was convinced that it would not come out of the pan intact.  I pictured a orange, crumbled looking oddity.

The cake did come out of the cake pan perfectly. There was no problem with that. But as you can see, it's so dark you can't see a smidgen of yellow. It looks like a dried sunflower--not a fresh cut one.  I was sure I hadn't baked it too long, and turned to my friend and master cake baker, Glenna, for advice. She told me that since my cake pan was so dark, it probably caused the browning that masks the yellow color.  That's annoying, and a design flaw in my opinion.

I expect the real star of the desserts tomorrow will be this wonderful pumpkin pie from my favorite bakery and coffee house, Konditorei.  That's a marzipan Butterball turkey on top!

And finally, this is what 13 pounds of russet potatoes looks like after it's turned into a lethally rich version of mashed potatoes.  My friends Char and Lizz have praised this recipe so highly, I decided to make it. Have you ever riced 13 pounds of steaming hot potatoes?  At the 7 pound mark, you begin to question the whole enterprise.  After ricing the potatoes, I added 2 packages of cream cheese and 2 cups of sour cream--and butter, of course.  I think this dish is dangerous.  But, it's delicious too. 

Butter count for the day:  three sticks, in the food I prepared. There's no telling how much is in the pumpkin pie.  But, it's Thanksgiving.   
 

A Good Thing

I don't like brussels sprouts, but I cook them frequently because my husband loves them.  I set large bowls of steamed sprouts on the table several times a week. And he eats them all with the pleasure usually accorded to Ben & Jerry's.  I want to like them because they're good for you and look sort of cute.  How often do you find a  vegetable that looks like the Mini Me of cabbages? Part of the problem is my lack of creativity in preparing them, no doubt. I steam them, period. 

At this time of the year, there are always lots of brussels sprout recipes in magazines, because somehow they are a traditional choice for holidays.  I saw this recipe in Martha Stewart Living several months ago. It looked promising because it called for bacon, parmesan cheese and pasta, which I love. I figured I could pick the brussels sprouts out of my serving and still have a great dish.   To my surprise, the sprouts tasted great.  Braising seems a much better way of preparing them. And bacon and Parmesan cheese are always a good thing. Did I just say A Good Thing?  Oh well.

Pasta With Brussels Sprouts and Bacon

7 slices of bacon, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
4 large shallots, cut in thin rounds
1 1/4 pounds brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved (or quartered if big)
1 1/4 cup chicken stock
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 ounces rigatoni or penne pasta
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan chess es
1/3 cup freshly chopped sage leaves

1.  Cook bacon in a large skillet for about 7 minutes until crisp, then transfer it with a slotted spoon to drain on paper towels.  Add oil to make about 2 tablespoons of oil in pan.  Add garlic, shallots, and sprouts to pan and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the stock, salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the sprouts are tender, about 12 minutes. 

2.  Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions until al dente.  Drain and reserve about 1/2 cup of the cooking water, return pasta to the pot.

3.  Stir in the sprouts mixture, cooking liquid, and cheese. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of oil, add sage and bacon.  Toss until combined. Serve with extra cheese.

Gone!

Sadly--my Agrimontana cherries are gone!!  Bob and I had the last of them on a baguette for dessert.  This morning I sopped up the last few precious drops of the cherry syrup with a piece of bread, feeling very sorry for myself.  If I could find a way to fit my head inside the jar, I could have licked it completely clean. 
Fortunately, I do have some Tupelo Honey to distract me from my cherry obsession. It's wonderful honey. See the slight green color? That's one sign of it being real Tupelo honey. And the other sign is the taste, of course, which is more complex and less sweet than other honey. When I was younger, I thought it came from Tupelo, Mississippi. Actually, the honey's name is from the Ogeche Tupelo gum tree found in Northwest Florida.  It's quite a labor intensive process to get real Tupelo honey to market. The bee colonies are stripped of all stored honey when the very brief Ogeche Tupelo bloom season begins.  And to make sure that any necter brought to the hives is pure tupelo, the new honey crop is removed to prevent it being mixed with necter brought in by honey bees from non-Tupelo sources.
 
Very nice. Thanks to the beekeepers. And the bees, of course.

      

Spicy Lemongrass Shrimp

Although I've only had this blog for less than two weeks, it's changed the way I cook and eat. Barrett over at Too Many Chefs was discussing this a few days ago.  Blogging makes you more aware of what you're eating, and leads to a dissatisfaction with mindlessly churning out the same predictable dishes again and again.  Now I'm actually preparing the recipes and foods that have beckoned me, but were often ignored for expediency's sake.  Tonight I made a dish created by Charles Phan, owner and head chef of The Slanted Door in San Francisco.  Very simple to prepare, it was such a pleasure to eat.  His recipe calls for chicken thighs, but I decided to make it with shrimp.  One of the ingredients, Vietnamese stir fry sauce, is deceptively simple, but gave the dish a complex and rich flavor.  The stir fry sauce is very easy to make and can be stored in the refrigerator.    

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds peeled medium shrimp, (or boneless chicken thighs, meat cut into 3/4-inch pieces)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 plump stalks of lemongrass, tender white inner bulb only, minced
1 medium red onion, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 cup Chinese cooking wine, sake or water
1/2 cup Vietnamese Stir-fry Sauce
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon Asian chili paste
4 large scallions, cut into 1/2-inch lengths
5 small dried red chilies
1 large jalapeno, seeded and thinly sliced directions

1. In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with 2 tablespoons of the canola oil, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 3/4 teaspoon of pepper.  Note: table salt will make the shrimp saltier.
2. In a large skillet or a wok, heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil until small puffs of smoke begin to appear. Add half of the shrimp and stir-fry over high heat, about 3 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a plate. Repeat with the remaining shrimp.
3. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in the skillet. Add the lemongrass, onion and garlic and cook over high heat, stirring, until fragrant, 2 minutes.
Add the wine and cook until slightly reduced, about 1 minute. Add the Vietnamese Stir-fry Sauce, oyster sauce, chili paste, scallions, dried chilies and jalapeno; bring to a boil. Add the shrimp to the sauce and simmer until heated through, then serve.
SERVE WITH Steamed jasmine rice.

Vietnamese Stir Fry Sauce

1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup, plus 1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

Bring stock to boil, remove from heat and add fish sauce and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and store in refrigerator for up to 2 days. 

Cook the shrimp over high heat in two batches, for 3 minutes.
Sir fry the onions, lemongrass, and garlic for about 2 minutes.

The finished dish, with the stir fry sauce, scallions, peppers and shrimp added to the onions.
Served with jasmine rice, this dish was delicious, and reminded me of several Cajun dishes I've eaten in New Orleans. 

Basic Tomato Sauce

Each summer I grow my tomato plants and use them to make sauce, which I freeze for later use.  It's very reassuring to look in the freezer and see containers of sauce stacked up, waiting to be used in various recipes.  But, now the sauce from fresh picked tomatoes is gone and the tomato plants are finished for the season. So,it's time to make tomato sauce from canned tomatoes.  The sauce isn't quite as good as when you use fresh picked tomatoes, but it's still good.  And it's much better than the bottled sauces in the grocery store.

This is basically the same recipe I learned to make while I was growing up, watching my mother prepare it.  It's one of those almost instinctive recipes, where you don't really measure things, you just eyeball the ingredients and the correct amount "feels" right. But, I did measure this time, sort of. 

To begin, saute 2 large onions, 1 heaping cup of chopped carrots, 1 cup coarsely chopped parsley, and 3-4 large cloves garlic in olive oil for about five minutes or so.

Add around 12 pounds of canned plum tomatoes, (if you have fresh tomatoes, use them) and cook over high heat until it begins to bubble. Turn down the heat and simmer for at least one hour, stirring it occasionally.  Of course the house will begin to smell wonderful.  After it has cooked for at least an hour, run it through the food processor until it's smooth. Or do what I did for these pictures: use a stick blender.  Add salt and ground pepper to taste.

The finished sauce, with a handful of basil leaves sprinkled on top.  Turn off the heat before you add the basil.  If you have some good bread, tear off a hunk and dip it in the sauce and imagine you are Clemenza teaching Michael Corleone how to make tomato sauce in the Godfather.   Or Ray Liotta making tomato gravy in Good Fellas. I'm Irish-American, but I love those Italian movie guys.  If you prefer, can it, but I'm tired of lugging out the canner, so I freeze it.

Serve with pasta or as a base for other recipes.  Enjoy!

Fun With Carbs And Caffeine

Friday, I had a cup of Joe and some pastry with my friend Nancy and her family at our favorite coffee house and bakery, Konditorei.  This was right on the heels of a new longitudinal study of nurses, showing that drinking coffee is just the ticket for keeping your blood pressure low. And here they thought it might be the reverse.  So, we all felt rather virtuous as we quaffed our lattes.  Now, as for the issue of the pastry, they are Austrian pastries and I'm sure that makes them very healthy. Look at the mango in my crepe. Antioxidants.   

I ordered my double shot latte, armed with the knowledge that I was taking care of my blood pressure.   This is my mango, poppy seed crepe with vanilla bean anglaise sauce. I don't care if it was healthy or not--it was delicious.

Nancy's fruit coffee cake.  She also had a huge latte, as well. 

Nancy's daughter, the lovely Lizzie, attacking a jelly filled doughnut!

Lizzie also had this enormous glass of hot chocolate. I'm not sure if there are any longitudinal studies on hot chocolate.  But, I think I remember reading that chocolate is good for you.  Or maybe I dreamed it.

Nancy's husband, Craig, ordered a prune danish.

Get Out The Little Dishes

When I saw this recipe for Pastel de Choclo in Sunset magazine, it appealed to me because it looked like Shepherd's Pie, with a twist.  I liked the idea of the corn puree as a topping, and reading the ingredients I could imagine how the salty, spicy meat layers might go nicely with the corn topping.  And that's exactly the way it worked out.  It's a good recipe that was interesting to make, but I doubt that I will ever make it again.   Once was enough, in this case.

I discovered, as often happens, that the recipe overstates the number of servings it will make.  It says that you will get four servings, using 2 1/2 cup individual casserole dishes. Wrong! I was only able to make three little casseroles.  So, if a person wants to make four, they should use smaller dishes or increase the recipe.

The ingredients: 

1  pound ground lean beef
1  tablespoon olive oil
1/2  cup raisins
1  onion (8 oz.), peeled and chopped
2  cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2  cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
2  teaspoons paprika
1  teaspoon ground cumin
Salt
About 1/2 teaspoon pepper
2  hard-cooked large eggs, shelled
2/3  cup thinly sliced grilled chicken breast (see notes)
3  cups corn kernels (drained canned, thawed frozen, or fresh cooked)
3/4  cup whipping cream

1. Preheat oven to 450°.

2. Cook beef in olive oil over high heat until no longer pink in center and liquid evaporates, 7 to 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, cover raisins with hot tap water and let stand until softened, about 5 minutes. Drain.

4. With a slotted spoon, transfer beef to a bowl. Add onion and garlic to the drippings and saute over on high heat until onion is lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Add raisins, olives, paprika, cumin, beef, and 3 tablespoons water; stir over medium heat to mingle flavors, 3 to 4 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Spoon mixture into 4 individual casseroles (2 to 2 1/2-cup size). Cut eggs in half lengthwise. Lay equal portions of chicken over beef, and push egg halves into casseroles, making mixture level.

6. In a food processor, whirl corn, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and cream until coarsely puréed.  Cook over high heat in skillet, bring to bubbling, then reduce heat and, stirring often, simmer until darker yellow and drier, 5 to 7 minutes. Spoon corn mixture equally over beef, chicken, and eggs and spread level.

7. Set casseroles on a baking sheet. Bake, uncovered, set on a rack positioned so tops are about 4 inches from broiler, until hot in center, 13 to 16 minutes. Turn heat to broil (heat may not come on right away) and brown crusts, 3 to 4 minutes more after broiler is hot.

Yield: Makes 4 servings

The meat mixture, with the raisins, Kalamata olives, onion, garlic, and spices. I think the amount of raisins could be increased to 3/4 cup, to make them stand out a little more.

The pureed corn and cream.  This thickens quickly as you cook it.  Stir it frequently.

I used 2 1/2 cup casseroles, as they suggested.  Instead of four servings, it made exactly three.  So, if you want four servings--use smaller dishes.

I liked the way all the different layers, each with a different taste, played off each other.  And it's always fun to have an excuse to use the little dishes.  When I got them, I envisioned using them to make souffles and potpies galore.  But, of course,  they sat in the cabinet, lonely and forsaken.  It makes me think that I should go through my cabinets and reacquaint myself with all the forgotten cookware and implements.  That might be a blog in itself!