Friday night fish was this wonderful recipe from The Boss (aka Bittman) called Ligurian Fish. We made it with Alaskan Cod which I’m told is OK to eat according to the PC Fish Police.
Saturday night was more fish and potatoes….stunningly fresh bluefish from the fish guys at the Montclair Farmer’s Mkt. This time is was a Marcella recipe done in a very similar manner to the cod, but involving a parsley and garlic sauce. Then it was off to Primo’s football game in the wilds of Bergen County. They romped 27-7.
Sunday was horseradish crusted pork loin along with Mom’s Red Cabbage. As usual the pork loin, while perfectly cooked, was very lean and tended towards dry. But a tasty crust made up for a lot. With the Principessa’s apple crisp for dessert it was our first real “fall” kind of meal.
You can’t stop a winner. You can only hope to contain it. Last weekend we led off with the Mussels, white beans and pasta again. We just love this dish and it’s the perfect Friday night dish…not too much cooking and prep but enough to keep one occupied in the kitchen, whilst having an adult beverage and listening to WFUV.
Saturday we tried rib-eye bison steaks from the bison lady at the Montclair Farmer’s Market. Just simply grilled. They were OK but we’ve like the filets we’ve had in the past better. Not really rich enough to be considered a rib-eye.
Sunday we crammed the cavity of a chicken full of herbs and a lemon and roasted it. The Principessa made a wonderful ratatouille AND a risotto with one of the butternuts from the garden. Not our usual chicken and mashed which was nice for a change.
So, while this blog has devolved into a few really lame posts about tomatoes over the course of this summer I keep thinking about our other aspect, that is, food. While toiling over the grill this summer, I more than once though “I should share this dish with my loyal readers (well, both of them)” But , I’ve often been reluctant since better than half of what we cook every weekend is whatever ideas Mark Bittman had. So it always seemed somewhat derivative to just fluff somebody else’s blog which is why I have resisted. But for god’s sake, the recipes usually work. As published.
But then I figured what the hell, I’m not doing anything else. And besides, since the tomato season has ended a bit early (thank you cool and rainy summer) there’s not much else to write about so here goes with our initial “WWALW”
Firs off, I should point out that due to the crazy schedule I work, I rarely get the chance to do much cooking during the week. Between driving to football practice, picking up at aftercare and whatever activities the Principessa has going on it’s usually a miracle if anything home cooked gets put on the table that’s not leftovers. So the weekend is when we let hair down. So to speak.
This past weekend we kicked off with (‘natch) a Bittman recipefor mussels and pasta. Whenever Bittman posts something involving seafood be it in Bitten or The Minimalist (or both) there’s a good chance we’re going to cook it on Friday night. Not that we’re religious fanatics or anything, it just works out that way. Anyway, killer recipe, will do again.
Saturday was an Indian feast, Jerzeetomato style. Steve Raichlen’s “Tandoori Style Beer Can Chicken” but instead of beer we used some wine from the packing crate in the fridge. The Principessa made raita, some wonderful cauliflower and a pilaf from Julie Sahni’s “Classic Indian Cooking” and we also did some chapatis on the grill from (you guessed it) Bittman. Lots of work for this meal and lots of clean up, which prompted the Principessa to refer to it as “Fricking Indian Thanksgiving”
Sunday, keeping it simple since it was the kickoff for the NFL season and we wanted to spend quality time with the flat screen, we grilled bison steaks we got at the Montclair farmer’s market and made a version of “Ass the Potatoes” from Mom’s first book. (someday we’ll share the story of how that dish was named, but for now, buy the book) Potatoes were fingerlings from the “organic guy” at the farmer’s market.
And one more Bittman on Monday. We managed to crank out the Pork Skewers with Peanut Basil Sauce and had them with some leftover pilaf. Good stuff and we realized that the peanut basil marinade/sauce would be good on just about any kind of skewer. Or just eaten from the bowl with a spoon for that matter.
Julia, Julia, Julia.
Everybody’s got Julia on the brain with the release of “Julie and Julia”. There is more being written and talked about Julia than anytime since she passed. Not that that’s a bad thing. But, since I haven’t seen the movie yet, I’ll leave the blabbing to others. Suffice it to say we’re all in her debt.
Filed under: Garden, Kitchen, Tomatoes | Tags: cooking, lamb, recipes, Tomatoes
It’s cold out there! But we warmed up with a winter feast made from the best stuff we had stashed away in the basement with two meals featuring entrees made from out stash of Awesome Farm products. First, Lisa made gnocchi which we had with a lamb ragu (which also featured a couple of jars of our own tomatoes). It went down quite well with a capital Barolo. For dessert, I made my (sorta) famous Chocolate Malted Creme Brulee. Famous, ‘cuz it was in Mom’s cookbook The Splendid Spoonful.
On Sunday we had had Hainanese chicken with our Awesome Farm chicken. This dish has been in heavy rotation for us every since Bittman wrote about it last summer. Although we like the more traditional version with a zippy lime-chili sauce.
Not much going on here but I did want to share a killer recipe. We went to NH for Christmas to Mom’s for Ye Olde Fashioned New England Christmas. And for x-mas dinner, to go along with the roast beast, Mom made this killer recipe for Yorkshire Pud’.
I’m very excited about a call I got yesterday. The good folks from Awesome Farm called to say our lamb was ready to head to the butcher. And they’d like to know how we’d like it butchered….legs: half or whole, rack: chops or whole, sholder: roast or stew, etc. etc. Ahhh, the possiblities. We ordered this lamb last spring and I’d almost forgotten about it. Now my only regret is that we only ordered half a lamb and not a whole. I’ll post back after we pick it up and let you know how it tastes.
I’ve made this dessert three times in three weeks, I love it so much. This time we added raspberries! Bittman rules!
Mom sent me a link to this recipe for a porchetta inspired pork shoulder. We cooked it in the Big Green Egg for about 8 hours without any wood chips and it was the tastiest, juciest roast pork I’ve had in a long while.
After years of trying to keep my kitchen knives sharp and not being satisfied with the results I discovered the solution was just 2 miles away from me. Sharpening knives on a whetstone has always seemed like a black art to me. I must have missed that night during Boy Scouts. But a web search revealed NJ Grinding in nearby Belleville. Literally a hole in the wall behind a non-descript brick building. What a difference! I’m ready to dice mirepoix all night long. Night of the long knives, indeed!
And, the best part is, all of you around the country can enjoy fine work and get your knives back up to snuff. Through their website, CutleryMania, the folks at NJ Grinding offer a service whereby they mail you a shipping container for your knives, you send your knives to them and Presto! within a couple of days your knives are returned sharpened and ready for battle with that mound of onions.
These guys are so sharp good they even fixed an old paring knife with a broken tip. Ground a new one right on to it.
