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.
On Tuesday this week we had our first meal from our own tomatoes. A simple pasta sauce made from about 10 Super Marzanos, a little onion, a little garlic, a little olive oil and a HUGE handful of basil. Spectacular. The meal used up all of our ripe tomatoes (except the cherries, we’re swimming in those) but we’re going to be able to eat the first slicers this weekend. We’ll keep you posted.
It’s official. A recent inventory of my garage revealed SEVEN different types of charcoal.
It’s really quite embarrassing. I can’t help myself. I see a new brand of hardwood at the store and I have to try a bag. I mean, I’m not as wrapped up in it as the Naked Whiz, but I fear I’m headed down that path.
It started this summer with the discovery that Kingsford got religion and started marketing lump hardwood. Then of course I had to try their new “Competition Briquettes”. I went to my local BGE dealer and they had BGE brand lump. I had to try that. And I noticed at the local Shoprite they had one of my favorites “Cowboy” brand lump. I didn’t buy any because I’m running out of room but once we get the air conditioner out of storage in the garage we’ll have more room. So maybe then….
“Give me two bricks and an oven rack and some wood, and I’ll cook you a better steak than any expensive gas grill, hands down. It might look good in your garden, it might be more convenient, it might impress your friends, but it’s not going to cook you a better steak.”
-Chris Schlesinger, Owner, East Coast Grill, Cambridge, MA
I take a pretty hard line when it comes to the debate of charcoal versus gas for grilling. When someone tries to extol the benefits of gas to me I usually reply with a comment along the lines of “If I wanted to cook with gas, I’d stay in my kitchen” I took a class with Chris Schlesinger once, who, when asked about cooking times for a gas grill on whatever he was making replied: “I don’t know. I don’t cook with gas.”
When I lived in an apartment and gas was all I could get away with, I used gas. But ever since we moved into our current house, I have sneered at the gas-aholics whenever the subject came up.
Until a few summers ago. That’s when after years of toiling in our non-centrally-air-conditioned kitchen I hit upon the idea of usuing a gas grill as a sort of “outdoor oven” to keep the heat down in the kitchen. With a company awarded gift certificate we aquired a cheap s*#t gas model from Sears. Since then we’ve baked bread, tarts, crumbles and roasted oven-dried tomatoes in the damn thing. Between the heretic gas grill and the BGE, we rarely turn the kitchen oven on at all during July and August.
Memorial Day weekend traditionally kicks off the summer grilling season, so I ask you, loyal readers to weigh in. The gloves are off. Which do you prefer?
Not really the type we were hoping for, though. Every part of the raised beds where I’ve added compost from our composter has sprouted DOZENS of tiny weeds. Obviously some seeds present in the scraps we’ve been composting. They look like they might be carrot seedlings but do carrots have seeds in them? I’ll have to research this. Ther’re also a number of cucumber seedlings springing from the composted beds but since they’re large they’re easily removed.
A new Italian study reveals that syrah acts as something of an aphrodisiac for women. It would have been so much classier than Everclear and grape juice.
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’.
JerzeeTomato 