Risotto, Wine and Mahjong

Wines:

Robert Mondavi 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon
Domaine J. Laurens Brut Blanc de Blancs
Caymus 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon
Tom Eddy 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon
Francis Tannahill 2001 Passito Washington Gewurztraminer



Bill and Kevin came to dinner last night. The plan was to cook, eat, drink and play some mahjong. They staggered out and home about 1:30am. The dinner was great, 5 bottles of wine were fantastic and the mahjong was fun. Bill is trying to teach everyone he knows how to play. I think the eventual goal is we start playing for money and then when he wins he can stay retired. We will see.

We started drinking with the Blanc de Blancs eating Indian Candy (a sweet smoked salmon) and Smoked Mussels. We often pick these up when we go to Santa Monica Seafood.

We then made for them the Radicchio Salad from The Zuni Café Cookbook. It is a great easy to make salad. The cookbook says it is the second most popular salad at Zuni (in San Francisco). Given all of the times that we ate there, we have never had it. It is made with chopped Radicchio, croutons, anchovy vinaigrette and chopped eggs. It is very good.

For the second course we made a special risotto. It is from The Splendid Table cookbook by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. We really recommend this Italian cookbook.

The risotto is called: Risotto of the Vigil. It is made with beef, carrots, celery, sage leaves, and salt pork. In addition, Cathy added marrow bones for extra richness. However, Cathy thought to replace the salt pork with a fatty chunk of prosciutto. It was an inspired exchange. At the end Parmesan Cheese is mixed in and sprinkled over the Risotto. We make the risotto once a year around Christmas.

For desert we had an Apple Pie with Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream. Clementine one of our favorite take-a-way restaurants, sells the frozen uncooked Apple Pie and it keeps well. When it is baked, it is just like a home cooked pie.

You can watch a movie from last night in our kitchen by clicking below.

Chanukah on Christmas Day

Chanukah on Christmas Day

Wine: Renard 005 Syrah California
A delicious Pouilly Fussé that Hope and Arnie brought


Because we were in Southeast Asia, we missed our traditional Chanukah Latke Dinner. So we decided to serve it on Christmas Day. We invited my sister and Sharon along with our cousins Hope and Arnie and their daughter Arlen.

We started with a favorite salad: Persimmons, Pomegranate, Arugula, Almonds, Saba, and topped with Prosciutto. We got most of the ingredients at The Cheese Store of Silverlake.

We then served the Latkes with Beef Bourginon. Of course we had sides of Apple Sauce and Sour Cream.

For desert we had a fabulous Flourless Chocolate Cake from LA Bread and a Cinnamon Cake that Hope and Arnie brought from The Corner Bakery.

It was a great family dinner. We got to repeat it the next night when Martin came over for dinner.

A Zuni Dinner

Wine: Pleiades XV Old Vines



This was the first dinner we cooked since returning from Southeast Asia. We decided to keep it simple. We cooked to dishes from The Zuni Café Cookbook. We chose them because we wanted recipes that would NOT require us to go to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market early Sunday morning. We are still affected by Jet Lag.

For the first course we made Caesar Salad. Zuni’s is the best ever! The key for us is the Romaine Hearts, anchovies packed in salt, and a great parmesan cheese (always from Cheese Store of Silverlake).

For the pasta a delicious one from the cookbook: Pasta with Braised Bacon & Roasted Tomato Sauce. The important thing in this recipe is great bacon – we used Nueskes Bacon. The cheese we used was an aged pecorino. This recipe is nice because you actually used canned whole tomatoes, you don’t need fresh tomatoes. It will definitely give us some great leftovers!

We went the La Brea Bakery at Campanile Restaurant to purchase some rolls for breakfast and they had the perfect pasta for this dish: Bucatini. It is a thick tubular pasta, and really holds the sauce.