oyster and bacon soup

So this is not your every day soup. With 5 pounds of muscles that don't even make it into the final product, not to mention 36 oysters, this is definitely one of the spendiest dishes you're ever going to see on Garlicus Maximus. That being said, Andrew Carmellini's bacon oyster chowder is delicious and would be an excellent addition to a special occasion type meal.

bacon-y carrot potato crusted pie

Sometimes all it takes is a photo, and a recipe will jump the line straight to the top of my "to cook list." A ridiculously rustic pie, with a burnished filling of caramelized carrots and bacon? Why don't you twist my arm a little harder, photographer blogger lady man sir?

butter-fried potato and apple slices with porcini mushrooms, shallots, parsley and sage

Man, I can't believe how January is already flying by! And here I am, still blogging about something I made back in October. Luckily, this meal was mainly root vegetables and apples, which store pretty well throughout the winter, so this is still fairly seasonal. As you'll see in the photo above, there were three components of this meal: maple carrot turnips, garlicky turnip tops and, for the main event, potato and apple slices fried in butter with shallots, porcini mushrooms, sage and parsley.

steak with cilantro pesto/duck fat potatoes

This is a nice medium rare steak with some cilantro pesto sauce and a side of delicious potatoes cooked with duck fat. It was a pretty good dinner, but the potatoes were definitely the star, even if the steak fanned out over the bright green sauce is considerably more photogenic.

two fritattas: chard, tomato and potato, and bacon, cauliflower and parmesan

A frittata is basically a big fat omelet that you don't have to worry about struggling to flip, because it bakes in the oven. You can put in all sorts of things in a frittata, which makes them a great thing to do with leftovers, and you can scale a frittata I recently (more or less) made two different varieties to use up food co-op veggies. First, we have one with swiss chard, tomatoes and potatoes, which was kind of French seeming, like a crustless quiche, and very nice. Second is a cauliflower and bacon parmesan frittata-- a little more breakfasty, but just as filling and delicious.

salad nicoise

Salade Niçoise is pretty complicated, as far as salads go. I mean, most salads do not involve cooking multiple components in what is ultimately a cold dish, lightly dressed in vineagrette. Not that I'm complaining, because a Niçoise salad is really good, and while it is filling enough to be a meal on its own, it isn't totally gluttonous to the point that it negates all the healthy connotations that go along with eating a salad for dinner. It's got potatoes and hard boiled egg, and some salty anchovies and capers, but all in all it is light and fresh. Laura suggested we make it one day when we had green beans and lettuce and tomato and potato from the food co-op, and it turned out delicious.

crispy tilapia fingers with lemon and garlic mayonnaise, pan fried potatoes and roasted asparagus

Sometimes it's hard to beat a nice piece of crispy fried fish, and when I saw that these golden brown tilapia fingers I was just totally taken with the lemon garlic mayo that went with them and had to make them.

Dredged in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, the filets are seasoned with salt and pepper and then fried, two to three minutes a side in olive oil over medium high heat. It's fried fish, which is always a treat, but what made this preparation a little different is that it calls for extra crispy panko breadcrumbs. I of course have been hearing about how wonderful and crunchy panko breadcrumbs are for years but it's one of those specialized ingredients that has always kind of intimidated me. Let me tell you: I am glad I finally sprung for a can. They add a nice crunchy element to all sorts of dishes, and I'm getting great use out of them.

The accompanying mayo was simple enough: mayonnaise, minced garlic and lemon juice are mixed together. I had some chives on hand, so I minced those and mixed those in for color. Normally I just squeeze a little lemon juice on my fish, so this was a great way to dress up some simple fried fish with a nice zesty sauce. (You'll notice I still couldn't resist tossing an extra lemon wedge on the plate.)




I served the fish with some asparagus that I quickly roasted with garlic and olive oil. I am not big on asparagus, but this was a pretty decent preparation of it.




I also made these little smashed potatoes, first boiled and then pressed down into a hot frying pan with olive oil and butter until the bottoms get fried to a beautiful golden brown and finally served with a sprinkling of fresh chives. The crusty edges are pretty tasty, but of all three components of this meal, this is definitely the one I am least inclined to make again. This just isn't a special enough way to make potatoes.




So there you have it: a tasty dinner of fried fish, roasted asparagus and smashed potatoes. Not too shabby.

dal nirvana and chicken vindaloo

So I've tried making Indian food a one or two times in the past, but I didn't really do it up right. There are a lot of different spices common in Indian cuisine that I don't normally have around, and even though a little goes a long way for spices, they are always so expensive! As a result, my previous attempts always fell a little bit short. They were tasty, but not quite as flavorful as the genuine article.

This might have continued indefinitely had it not been for my lovely roommate Laura, who emailed me one day to say that she was making some spicy chicken vindaloo for our friend Matt, and would I like to join them? Well, I had a recipe for some lentil "dal nirvana" that I had been meaning to try, so I offered to make that to go with it.




Both of these dishes are pretty common examples of Indian cuisine, at least from what I've experienced of it. The chicken is cooked with potatoes and a spicy tomato and onion sauce. The lentils are boiled with tomatoes and Indian spices. This particular recipe appealed to me because it was finished with some cream and butter for added richness, and cilantro, which I pretty much love in anything. We decided to serve them both with white basmati rice.

Laura went all out for this dinner, which meant we had a new set of Indian spices to play with: coriander, cardamom, turmeric... we even ground up our own garem masala with cloves and pepper and stuff. It was pretty exciting. I particularly liked the smell of the coriander, which I had never smelt on its own before. It was really fragrant in a way I can't quite describe. A very clean, fresh scent, it was almost citrusy.

Laura and Matt tackled the chicken while I made the lentils. I was a little bit worried while they were making the sauce. The spicy pungent mixture was so pungent that I was literally crying when they threw the garlic, onions, tomatoes, fresh ginger and spices in the blender. Luckily, it mellowed on the stove, with all the thick paste cooking wayyyyy down so it was just coating the chicken and potatoes rather than drowning it. A little patience made it all possible.

Similarly, my lentils looked like soup in all the water and canned tomato juice, but after an hour on the stove it was nice and thick, infused with some extra garam masala which I took the liberty of adding.




I don't know if I'd say that the dal lived up to its nirvana name, but it was very, very tasty, and both dishes actually tasted like real deal Indian food. I was proud of us for making such an ethnic meal. Laura gets major kudos for springing for the exotic spices. And now we've got them on hand for any future Indian endeavors!

what I cooked for the holidays pt 2

Wow. I really have been putting off this particular blog entry. That's right, it's time to talk Christmas dinner. And I wonder why no one is interested in reading my blog.



I made a few things that I've discussed on here before. First, this amazing recipe for maple syrup lemon brussels sprouts with bacon, as first discussed here.





In the first picture, you'll also catch a glimpse of some carrots, which were simply steamed and dressed with lemon and olive oil. Standard.

I also made a variation on those olive oil glazed potatoes first written about way back in July.





Of course the main event was the prime rib, which we made using a Craig Claibourne recipe. It was predictably juicy meaty delicious, and the simple horseradish sour cream that went with it was tangy and delicious. Less successful was the yorkshire pudding.



Does that look like a god awful spongy mess or what? I don't know if I just didn't have the drippings hot enough when I poured in the batter or what, but this was just a weird greasy omelet. I won't rule out that the pudding wasn't just a victim of me trying to prepare one too many dishes, but I definitely would skip this next time around.

We also made Thomas Keller's creamed pearl onions, which were labor intensive but delicious, if a little over reduced. Luckily, even with a less than perfectly silky cream sauce, pearl onions with bacon and chives are still delicious.



Check out the close up for some nutmeg action.



For dessert I went super low key, in order to accommodate Matt's gluten free diet without pulling out too many bells and whistles. The Smitten Kitchen's wayyyyy-easier-than-pie
roasted pears were a rustic yet elegant, easy yet delicious end to the meal.



Of course, when it comes to Christmas, you're there for the roast. Here's the recipe.

Prime Rib
(adapted from Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Cookbook, 1981, p. 165)

Roast
1 prime rib rib roast, ribs removed
¼ cup cold water
salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Remove the roast from the refrigerator 2 ½ to 4 hours before cooking. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
2. Place roast in an open shallow roasting pan, fat side up. Season with salt and pepper. Pour water around the meat. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
3. Reduce oven heat to 400 degrees and continue baking for 25 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees and bake for 15 minutes for rare beef, 30 minutes for medium rare beef, longer for well done. Carefully transfer the roast to a serving dish and cover loosely with foil to keep warm.
4. Pour off all the fat from the roasting pan, but save about ½ cup for preparing Yorkshire pudding. Serve the beef sliced with Yorkshire pudding and grated horseradish or horseradish cream on the side, if desired.

Yorkshire Pudding
1 cup milk
⅛ teaspoon grated nutmeg
4 large eggs, about ¾ cup when measured
½ cup beef drippings

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine the milk and nutmeg in a mixing bowl. Put the eggs in another bowl and beat until frothy. Ad this to the milk and stir.
3. Pour the beef drippings into a heat-proof baking dish and place on the stove over moderate heat. When quite hot and almost smoking, add the batter. Smooth it over with a rubber spatula. Place the pudding in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Turn the baking dish as the cooking proceeds for even cooking.

Horseradish Cream
½ cup freshly grated horseradish
¾ cup sour cream
salt to taste

Blend all the ingredients and serve.

gouda mashed potatoes with bacon and crispy sage

I appologize for the less than stellar photographs, but let me assure you: these pictures depict the best thing to happen to mashed potatoes since they first discovered milk and butter: cheesy bacon and sage mashed potatoes.



This was, as you might already suspect, a decadently rich dish, even without boiling the potatoes in stock as the recipe instructed. (I just used plain old water since I figured there was quite enough going on with these potatoes already.)

We peeled and chopped our potatoes, and then boiled them until cooked through. After draining the potatoes, we put them back in the pot and turned the heat back on. We stirred the potatoes for a few minutes to help dry them out before the mashing began, and then added a couple tablespoons of butter and a couple of cups of grated gouda cheese. From here on out, this was all Nathan, as he lovingly mashed the the potatoes into creamy and cheesy goodness with the electric mixer, adding a splash of warm milk to bind it all together. Meanwhile, I was frying up some crispy bacon bits and sage leaves for the garnish.

I normally find gouda to be a little overpowering with its smokiness, but the mashed potatoes definitely tempered and mellowed the cheese, and then end result was smooth and delicious. The bacon and sage added salt, color and texture to really kick things up a notch.

This was like eating an awesome stuffed baked potato, only it felt super classy instead of like something off the TGIFriday's menu. Frizzled sage leaves tend to have that effect. Plus, Nathan did a really excellent job mashing these up for optimal silk smoothness. The boy makes peerless potatoes. What more could I ask for?

potato latkes with apple confit and crispy sage

Can you still eat latkes at Passover, or are they just a Hanukkah thing? Because I made this kick ass latke recipe back in December, but I still think it would be awesomely delicious now.



These latkes are made with shredded potatoes and shallots, and are topped with a sweet apple "confit," and crispy sage leaves. Very delicious. Of course, if I am being honest, this dish is definitely a prime example of fancy language elevating a rather humble concept. OK, yes, crispy sage is an upscale addition to the recipe, but apple confit? Really? Come on, you made latkes with applesauce.

Applesauce or apple confit, the condiment was very easy to make. I didn't peel the apples like the recipe called for, just chopped them up and threw them in the pan with some melted butter, lemon juice and sugar. Five minutes later, you've got lovely soft apples perfect for serving with pork chops, or in this case, potato latkes.

The latkes were a little more involved. Shred the potatoes, and then let them sit in a bowl of cold water for a half hour. After the squeezing the potatoes dry with a paper towel, mix them with diced shallots, flour, eggs and salt and pepper. At this point, the recipe does something smart. What I was most worried about was the latkes falling apart in the pan, or being really soggy, but that wasn't an issue at all after you let them drain in a mesh strainer over a bowl for a half hour. This really helped to get rid of a lot of the excess moisture, ensuring nice crispy potato cakes. Brilliant. Then you fry them in oil over medium high heat for a couple of minutes on each side. Actually, I guess they aren't that involved either.



To serve, top them off with your apple confit. Then, to gild the lily, simply lightly fry sage leaves in some butter and sprinkle them atop your latkes. It's a great touch, really. Light and crispy, and a nice mix of sweet and savory, these latkes were absolutely delicious.

brown butter cauliflower with capers, anchovies and breadcrumbs/hasselback potatoes

breadcrumb topped cauliflower

Today I have two things to talk about: cauliflower and potatoes. The first turned out quite delicious. The second just didn't cook all the way through and was as such, quite a disappointment. Anyway.

Cauliflower. A great way to make it is by browning lots of butter and then cooking lots of cauliflower, anchovies and capers in that nutty toasty liquid. Once it's starting to get soft, sprinkle on a bunch of breadcrumbs and then pop it in the oven til it gets nice and crispy. Salt, crunchy, crispy delicious. The anchovies and capers really gave it a nice bite, and the breadcrumbs gave it a great texture.


cauliflower, potatoes and salad

I served it with a leafy green salad and a basked hasselback potato. I was really excited about making that when I read about it. Unfortunately, even sliced super thin and laced with butter and herbs, it just refused to cook, and I ended up eating slightly raw potato. Nasty. I will just have to try this again, with more patience. I definitely cooked it for over an hour though, so I don't know what went wrong.

Luckily, the cauliflower was especially delicious– Even Nathan thought it was good!


undercooked potato

tortilla espanola

spanish potato and egg omelet

So check this out. Tortilla espanola, prepared in my very own kitchen by a real life Spaniard!

My roommate Laura spent junior year abroad in Spain. After we graduated, we found a place in the Bronx, but I didn't want to move in until I had found a job, so Laura needed to find someone to sublet my room for the summer. Conveniently, Laura's Spanish host family happened to put her in touch with a friend of theirs who was in New York for a few months. Katia was about to start college, and was in the US for the first time, hoping to improve her English. She was working as an au pair, but the family she was with spoke mainly Russian and she was very unhappy with them. In other words, Laura and Katia were a perfect fit.

The two of them hung out all summer, and Laura showed her all around our old neighborhood in the Bronx. Katia revealed that her guidebook told her to stay out of the borough in general. Even though I was living on Long Island at the time, I was able to spend time with the two of them whenever I was in the city that summer, which was pretty much as often as I could afford. We always had a lot of fun. Fordham had a pitiful number of foreign students, and I really only met other Americans when I studied briefly in Italy, so it was very cool to hang out with the genuine European article. Katia went home after September was over, but for that brief summer, she was an important part of our post-collegiate circle of friends.

Last month, Katia was back in New York for the first time in over two years. She came over our apartment for dinner, bringing a massive and delicious block of Manchego cheese, and her boyfriend Sergio, who cooked us this impressive tortilla espanola.

Laura, Sergio and Katia cheerfully chattered away in Spanish. In response, I lamely offered a word or two like "manana" or "necessito," generally butchering the language. (I took 8 years of Spanish, so I know how pathetic that is.) Sergio expertly sliced the cheese, spreading it with strawberry jam. Laura chopped up the potatoes and Sergio fried them until crisp in a skillet full of vegetable oil. He scrambled the eggs and then cooked them with the potatoes like a big omelet. Expertly, Sergio flipped the skillet over and the egg potato mixture out onto a plate, so he could slide the uncooked side back into the pan. It turned out perfectly golden brown and cooked all the way through. Just beautiful.

I was very impressed with this little slice of Spain being served up in Harlem, but Sergio was very critical of his work. He found the tortilla to be bland, since he had neglected to season it. I offered to bring in the salt shaker, but he urged me not to, because he thought it was too late to add salt. If I salted the dish at the table, the salt would merely coat the food, remaining a separate element instead of permeating the eggs and potatoes as they cooked. Regardless of the salt issue, I thought it was pretty good, and watching him cook for us was so cool– like the Spanish version of that Take Home Chef show!

Having Sergio and Katia visit us reminded me just how much I love Spanish food, and how little I know about cooking it. Hopefully I will branch out in that direction soon, because I don't anticipate friendly foreigners coming over to make me dinner again anytime soon!

colcannon mashed potatoes

cabbage and mashed potato colcannon

Wow, I could use a break from this whole "writing a blog post every day thing" already, and its only the 8th. I have a feeling it is going to be a long month. Today I read an interesting article about the growing popularization of vegetables, which are no longer considered second class citizens in a meat eater's world. Between my diet being dictated by my injury and the epic veggie share at the CSA, I've become much less dependent on meat in my own diet, so I found it an interesting read.

In fact, the last couple of posts, in conjunction with today's, represent a great meatless dinner I put together for Laura and Nathan back in September. Luscious, tender leeks in vinaigrette, nutty and peppery romesco sauce, and creamy crunchy colcannon potatoes. It was a pan-European meal, what with the French leeks, Mediterranean romesco and Irish cabbage and potatoes. It was also extremely filling and satisfying without any meat or even cheese. If I had thickened my mashed potatoes without milk and butter, it would have even been vegan! I know I know, this is scaring me too.

But seriously, what with the horrible state of livestock farming in this country, it's obviously good for each of us to scale our meat intake down a little bit. Feed lots are a huge health problem in our world, not to mention totally disgusting and rife with animal cruelty. I know it's easy to get blindsided by a carnivorous love for meat, but I'm here to tell you that it's possible to cook such delicious food that you won't even miss your daily steak or pork chop. I know Nathan still raves about this meatless meal months later, and if that's not a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is.

I made the colcannon based on this recipe. I had never heard of colcannon, but basically all it is is mashed potatoes mixed with some boiled kale or cabbage , onion and parsley that has been seasoned and dressed with some lemon juice and olive oil. The author used kale, but mentioned that cabbage was also traditional. There was a big head of CSA cabbage in the fridge, so that's what went in. It was a nice variation on plain mashed potatoes and quite delicious.


Irish mashed potatoes

Together with the leeks and romesco sauce, the colcannon made for a very hearty and filling meal. We wanted for nothing. Not even a little meat.

glazed Gourmet potatoes and a terrible disappointment

When Gourmet Magazine folded last year, it was almost as if a little part of me died. Growing up, I think I thought Gourmet was just another picture book. My Aunt Cathy had a subscription, and I used to make her read me recipes like they were stories when I came to visit. I still can't believe that it's no longer in existence. A damn shame. Anyway, the good thing is that plenty of the magazine's recipes are available online, from one source or another. Today, I'd like to talk about a wonderful potato recipe that I made last week.


olive oil glazed potatoes with fresh parsley

The original recipe was entitled Fingerling Potatoes with Chives and Parsley, but I didn't have fingerlings, so I just used some regular ones at it worked out fine. (Actually the bag says "Golden Potatoes," if you really want to know.) I just had to slice them into long cross sections.

These potatoes literally couldn't be easier. You simply peel them, place them in the skillet and cover them with water, a couple tablespoons of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Then, you bring it to a boil, and then cover and simmer for ten minutes stirring occasionally. At that point, you take off the lid and let it cook for five more minutes, so that the olive oil sort of glazes over the potatoes. Add freshly chopped herbs, like basil and parsley, and eat immediately. I only had parsley on hand when I made it.


simple and delicious

It was delicious. Absolutely delicious. I will definitely be making this again. Normally I'll just make a baked potato if I'm having them for dinner, but this is so much faster and just plain old better. Good old Gourmet. Still coming through with amazing, fantastic food, even after being cruelly shut down.

I was lucky that those delicious potatoes turned out to be so delicious, because I majorly screwed up the main component of that meal, which was supposed to be a delightfully sweet and summery corn chowder. I was really excited about it too. I had gotten corn from the food co-op, and it was just the sweetest most delicious corn I had even tasted. I cut all the kernels off the cob and set them aside while I made a stock to base the soup on, and let me tell you, I couldn't stop nibbling. It was like candy.

I opened up The Flavor Bible to the corn entry, and in addition to learning that corn goes nicely from everything from crab to maple syrup, I was excited by the suggestions of a chef from Oregon named Vitaly Paley. He had two ideas that really spoke to me, which I will quote:

"We used the husks, which produce a juice, to make a stock for the soup... We made a stock using the corn hucks cooked with a little onion, water, and salt, and let it cook for about 45 minutes. What came out was the most amazing sweet broth. We added the corn, pureed it, and served it chilled. It was so sweet and full of corn flavor you would have sorn there were cream and sugar in it. We now make a corn husk broth to add to a corn, chanterelle, and Dungeness carb risotto with a touch of pesto. Basil pesto and corn really speaks to me. It is a wonderful combination."

You always hear that the best way to make a really sweet and delicious soup infused with bright corn flavor is to boil the cobs first, so I figured I would use the husks as well. I was convinced that this was going to be the most delicious, most flavorful, most corn-like corn soup ever. Liquid gold, if you will. I also was going to add porcini mushrooms and swirl in some of my homemade pesto. I was really excited.

What went wrong? I got the proportion of husk/cob stock to actual kernels completely wrong. Wayyyy too much water and not nearly enough corn. It was totally diluted. I tried adding some cream to thicken it up, but that didn't do much to help. It didn't taste bad, but it was just so bland compared to the glorious soup I envisioned, and the sugary sweet and farm fresh corn I had to work with. When I told Nathan, he employed one of his favorite phrases: casting your pearls before swine. It was a damn shame.

homemade mayonnaise for a summer potato salad

So I finally did it: I made my own mayonnaise! This is one of those things that only professional chefs and food bloggers do anymore, and now that I count myself among the latter, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I joined the ranks of the mayo makers.


freshly made mayo

Look how gorgeous! Watching the unlikely combo of egg yolk and olive oil come together to form a delicate and creamy mass was oddly satisfying, but I have to say that I probably wouldn't try to pull this off on my own.

I started off whisking the yolk vigorously with my right hand, and trying to slowly drip in the oil with my left. My parents have a nice olive oil bottle with a small spout, but if left unchecked it still was more of a small but steady stream rather than a series of oil droplets. I soon tired, and called in my dad from the sidelines. We teamed up, taking turns with the more exhausting whisking and easier dripping. It came together beautifully, and was lightly seasoned afterward. I suspect it could have held even more olive oil, but we were both getting tired and I decided it was good enough.

As cool as I felt making mayonnaise from scratch, the primary reason I decided to try my hand at it was that I was making potato salad, and I didn't have nearly enough Hellman's. This potato salad was part of the ribs and zucchini meal I posted about yesterday, and immediately followed my gigantic coleslaw. As such, I had already used most of my parents' stock of the condiment in question. Enter the handmade variety!


macaroni and cheese

My parents weren't too crazy about this potato salad. I guess it was tasty enough. Boiled potatoes cut up and mixed with mayo, diced celery, minced parsley and basil. I added salt and pepper, and possibly a little dijon. This was just a quick and dirty potato salad, (labor intensive mayo aside), as the real star of the meal was the ribs. I'd like to try making a more interesting potato salad later on this summer.

duck legs with spinach, carrots and mashed potatoes

So awhile ago Nathan and I went down to the Tompkin's Square Park Farmer's Market on a Sunday to "see what was fresh," as is so popular amongst the food blogging set. We picked up some beautiful duck legs, cute cipollini onions, some fresh spinach and little potatoes and made us some braised duck.

Now, duck is probably my favorite meat, and I know Nathan is pretty fond of it as well. We made an incredibly delicious roast duck for Christmas dinner at my parents' house this year, but this was our first attempt at an every day sort of duck dinner. Back in December, we made a typically complicated recipe from the epic Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook. This time around, we once again took a page out of Alice Waters' book, but we were less ambitious and looked to The Art of Simple Food and Chez Panisse Cookbook for our inspiration.

We trimmed the extra skin and fat off the legs, sliced it and fried that up first to render the fat. We tried eating the cracklings with salt and pepper, but they weren't as good as I thought they would be. Kind of burnt I guess. Meanwhile, we let the duck sit after we'd salted and peppered it. After an hour or so, we browned the legs in my big oven proof frying pan, pouring off the fat as it collected.

After the skin of the duck was a nice mahogany brown, we removed it from the pan and set the legs aside for a moment. We tossed a couple of diced food co-op carrots and some chopped celery into the pan and let that cook for awhile. Then we added the duck back in, skin side facing down, a bunch of the peeled cipollinis, and poured in some homemade chicken stock and a little white wine for the braising liquid. I am pretty sure we also added some lemon zest as per Alice's suggestion.

We put the pan in a 425° oven and covered it for a half hour. Then we flipped the duck and turned down the temperature to 325° for an hour to an hour and a half. At some point, and I don't remember when, we dumped off the braising liquid and let the fat rise to the top so we could skim it off. When the legs seemed thoroughly tender, I put the spinach and some parsley in the pan and let that wilt in the juices.

Unfortunately, I found that this dish, while flavorful and delicious, was just too greasy and oily. Even though we skimmed off as much duck fat as we could, it really clung to the whole dish. I was especially disappointed with how greasy the spinach got, even though we just added it the very end. Of course, it was duck with amazing onions and vegetables, so we didn't complain too much. I'm just not sure if braising is the best way to go with such a fatty animal.


not your typical meat and potatoes

More successful were Alice's easy mashed potatoes. We chopped them up into medium sized pieces and boiled them about 15 minutes. After draining them, (reserving some of the water), I put them back in the pot and turned the heat back on to dry them out for a few minutes. That's a trick Aunt Cathy taught me. Then we took them out of the pot and poured in a little milk and potato water, which we also heated. Then we added back the potatoes and some butter and whipped it all together with the electric mixer. Delicious! I ask you: how are mashed potatoes so good?


easy mashed potatoes

master meals, week 7: jonathan waxman's steak tartare and potatoes with melted raclette

waxman's tartare and potatoes

We've fallen a bit behind on our Master Meals series. We made this quite awhile ago, after loading and reloading the google book copy of A Great American Cook until we found a Jonathan Waxman recipe that we both liked. Nathan is crazy about steak tartare, and I was willing to give it a shot.

As it required no cooking, the tartare was pretty easy to make. It did, however require a whole lot of chopping. First, the meat, which I sliced into ⅛ inch strips and attempted to dice. Then we quartered a lime and chopped up half a red onion, a couple of shallots, 4 cloves of garlic, a jalapeno chile, a serrano chile, a tomato and a half cup of parsley. Like I said, a lot of chopping. Then we mixed the meat with salt, pepper, a few shakes of tabasco sauce and the juice of a lemon. The other ingredients we piled on a plate, and added them in as we saw fit at the table.


tartare mix-ins

Somehow, this didn't quite come together. It wasn't bad, but I didn't enjoy it all that much either. I think that the steak wasn't chopped small enough. I did the best I could with a knife, but I think having it coarsely ground would have worked better. Nathan also thinks we should have mixed in some egg yolk. That probably would have been good. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is evident in the picture below. You can see that the pile of onions and shallots and such was almost as big as the pile of meat, and I didn't even do the full three recommended shallots. It was pretty much all we could taste after we mixed it all together, and I kept on tasting it all night through to the next day's lunch. Decidedly unpleasant.


a salad, tartare and all the fixins

The potatoes, on the other hand, were great. We boiled them for 20 minutes, and then sliced them real thin. After tossing them olive oil and salt and pepper, we crisped them under the broiler with half a pound of shredded raclette cheese and cooked until it got nice and bubbly, which only took two or three minutes. Raclette tastes pretty nasty cold, but it melts into total deliciousness. I would definitely make potatoes like this again, and I'd love to find another raclette recipe.


raclette roasted potatoes

loaded baked potato with cumin carrots and pan fried pork chop

I made this dinner last Friday before I went out and it was super easy. It also adhered to my favored meal formula: meat + starch + veggie = dinner. Yay. In a twist on a meal my parents have made countless times, I made a simple pork chop, a baked potato, and some cumin roasted carrots. It was easy, homey, and utterly satisfying.


pork, potato, carrot

The star of the meal, believe it or not, was the baked potato. I had gotten some fairly small red ones from the food co-op, so I poked holes all over the largest one and popped it in the microwave on the baked potato setting. I also set the toaster oven to 350 degrees so I could finish it off in there. I fried up a little bacon and chopped up some scallions to sprinkle on top. I also had some sour cream I was going to use, so I decided to try using this cool bacon horseradish dip that Laura got me in Florida. I just mixed a small amount of the mix into some sour cream, and it was instantly a delicious dip. I'm not generally a proponent of powders and prepared foods, but this was actually pretty tasty and the company claims to sell natural foods. I don't want to know what's in it, but I'll definitely eat it again, haha, as well as the cucumber dill variety.


purple potato with bacon horseradish sour cream dip

The potato itself turned out wonderfully. I had never had baked a potato that was anything but a boring yellowy white inside, but this little beauty was a lovely shade of purple. So cool. I love loading lots of stuff in my potatoes, so this was definitely a winner, haha.

A couple of hours before I started cooking, I defrosted a pork chop I'd had in the freezer for awhile. I decided to prepare it as simply as possible, partially because I felt damn guilty about all the sour cream and bacon. (Of course, I was cooking the bacon and the chop in the same pan at the same time, so I probably shot myself in the foot there...) Nathan's stepmom, Patricia, had gotten me this awesome pink Australian salt for my birthday, and although it's really cool, it's also the sort of thing that almost feels too good to actually use. However, the label suggests using it on meats, so that is just what I did, along with some freshly ground pepper. I cooked on fairly high heat and it turned wonderfully golden brown.

The third thing I made was these cumin roasted carrots I had recently stumbled across on a food blog. With all the moving we've done recently, I've had ample opportunity to familiarize myself with the forgotten contents of my pantry, including a bag of cumin seeds. Tossed with olive oil oil, salt and pepper, my cumin seeded carrots were like crispy sweet potato fries after 35 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees. If I were you, I'd check these puppies after 25 minutes because they cooked way faster than the recipe claimed. That being said, these were awesome and I am definitely going to continue making them with my surplus of food co-op carrots. I also tossed in some of my chopped scallions, which made for nice if unnecessary addition.

All in all, it was a very successful meal, and it gave me plenty of fuel for my Friday night fun.

irish soda bread/corned beef and cabbage

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I know that most people primarily think me as Italian, but I'm actually nearly half Irish, (with one Austrian great grandfather that I'm not really sure what to make of). When I was growing up, my mom always made a big deal over St. Patrick's Day. We'd always go into the city to see the parade, and have a great big dinner with her sister, Aunt Cathy, my grandma, and her brother, my Uncle James, among other folks. The dinner menu never varied: Irish soda bread, corned beef, boiled potatoes, steamed cabbage with vinegar, and Colman's hot mustard powder, which I only tried once and nearly incinerated my taste buds.

This meal was very different from the pasta and steak and salad variety dinners my parents would prepare the rest of the year, but it was always amazing. The star was clearly the tender, fatty, bright pink corned beef, but all the elements combined to create the perfect meal. Before this year, I had never attempted to recreate my mom, aunt and grandma's St. Patrick's Day feast, but with the holiday falling smack in the middle of the week and busy weekends on both ends, there was no opportunity to go home for my favorite annual March treat. So, for the first time, I took it upon myself to replicate it in my apartment, for what Nathan refers to as "BEEF NIGHT."

beef night

I was surprised to discover how straight forward and easy each component of the meal was. That's not to say I got everything exactly right, and nothing was quite as good as my mom/aunt/grandma would make it. Something about perfectly replicating the family classics is just impossible. However, I do feel confident in sharing the instructions with you all, should you feel so inclined to prepare an Irish American feast this evening in honor of the holiday.

First of all, set aside three and a half hours for cooking the corned beef. This is a completely painless process, as you basically leave it alone most of the time, but it does take awhile. After cooking all that time, the corned beef will definitely shrink up a great deal, so plan on a pound to a pound and a half per person. Err on the side of more so you can have awesome corned beef sandwiches from all the leftovers. The best brand, according to my mom, is Friedrich, and you should get the thin cut as it is the most tender. Put the corned beef in a pot and cover it with water. Bring it to a boil and then dump out the water and add fresh water. This keeps it from getting ridiculously salty. Then you put it back on the stove for what my mom described as a "rolling boil," for three hours. My boil was actually too boily, so watch out for that because it will make your beef a little chewy and tough. It was still delicious, but I will definitely watch the flame and the water more carefully next time. Keep it somewhere between a simmer and an outright boil and you should be fine.

all the fixins for an irish american feast

The potatoes and cabbage are super easy. I peeled the potatoes and boiled them until soft in salted water. I sliced them into rounds so they would cook faster, but my mom usually only cuts them in half. I think I got yukon gold potatoes, and they were surprisingly delicious with only some butter and freshly ground pepper. Nathan had been bellyaching for mashed potatoes instead, but ended up not missing them in the least.

boiled potatoes topped with salt, cracked black pepper, and butter

I sliced up half of a relatively small head of cabbage and cooked it with a few glugs of white vinegar and two spoonfuls of this great grainy dijon mustard that was on sale at fine fare. Of course, the flame went out and since it was on the back burner behind the pot of potatoes it was about 20 minutes before I realized why it was cooking so slowly, aka not at all. Then I obviously cranked up the flame in frustration and all the vinegar and water evaporated too quickly and the cabbage started to burn a little, even while it was still slightly underdone. Whoops. I caught it just in time though, and it was nicely flavored from the vinegar and the mustard despite the burnt-yet-crunchy quality of some of it.

The final part of the meal was the soda bread. In elementary school, my teachers would always have little St. Patrick's Day party for the class. This usually meant green munchkins, sugar cookies and bagels, but I was always called upon to bring in my mom's Irish Soda Bread. (Bridget Dormer's mom always made some too, but even though her dad was legit born in Ireland, their soda bread wasn't as good, so THERE.) I've watched my mom make this, and helped my mom make this, but this year wsa the first time that I actually attempted to make it myself. It is incredibly easy, and super delicious. Unfortunately for Matt, it is the only part of the meal that isn't gluten free, and we've yet to devise an alternative that he can eat.

In honor of it being my grandma's recipe, I will end this entry by posting the whole thing as my mother gave it to me. Like my mom, I used a full cup of raisins, and I made it without the caraway seeds that Aunt Cathy loves so much. If you don't have buttermilk, you can add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk to achieve roughly the same effect, but with a bread with so few ingredients, this is not recommended.

fresh irish soda bread

Irish Soda Bread
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins (I think I use 1 cup)
1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
About 1 cup buttermilk (better to use a little less & then add if needed)

Sift flour, baking powder, soda & salt. Add raisins & seeds. Mix to a soft dough with buttermilk.
Form into oval, cut cross on top & put on ungreased baking pan (sprinkle pan with a bit of flour). Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 10 min., reduce heat to 350 & bake about 30-40 min.

Should sound hollow when you knock on bottom of loaf.
Check expiration date on powder & soda.
If dough is sticky, sprinkle a little bit of flour on exterior.

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal, and it's simple enough that pretty much anyone could handle it, although Nathan may have bitten off more than he could chew.


his eyes were bigger than his stomach