Leftovers and More

French Onion Soup

For a first course, since it was winter and getting cool (at least by LA standards), we made French Onion Soup. We always use Julia Child’s recipe. It is very rich with lots of beef broth and cheese. We usually grate the Gruyere Cheese over toast in the soup then broil the cheese. We decided to perform an experiment and grated the cheese on one of the bowls of soup. For the other bowl we thinly sliced the cheese and put it on the soup. What we discovered was that it made no difference once the cheese melted. So, since it is easier to slice then grate, we will slice the cheese in the future.

Lobster Pasta

We wanted to use the leftover Lobster from New Years. We had this incredibly rich lobster butter that we had used to poach the lobster. We had saved the butter and knew we would be re-using it. We made pasta and then melted the butter, and added the lobster. It was very rich and wonderful.

Smoked Salmon Spread

We had smoked salmon and made a salmon spread that we have always liked.
We first found it in the Los Angeles Times. It is very easy to make.

Salmon Spread

8 oz smoked salmon cut up
2 tbl chopped onion
1 tsp chopped drained capers
2 tbl sour cream
1 tsp lemon juice or to taste

Mix and serve on crackers or toast points


Pork Braised in Milk and Polenta

This was one more dinner we made in the post holiday vacation. This is one of our all-time favorites. It was one of the first dishes that we jointly made, years ago. It sounds weird to braise pork in milk, but is an excellent preparation. The milk eventually boils off, creating a dark thick sauce as it combines with the pork drippings during cooking. The recipe we use is from Marcella Hazan: The Classic Italian Cookbook. Matt Molina who used to cook at Campanile, and now is the executive chief at Mozza, served it once and made an addition that we have incorporated. He added sautéed onions, garlic, lemon peel and sage to the recipe. It was a good addition to the recipe.

1. 2 tablespoons butter
2. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3. 2 pounds boneless pork loin, with some fat on it
4. 1 teaspoon salt
5. freshly group pepper
6. 2 ½ cups milk
7. 2 chopped onions sauted with chopped garlic and sage leaves and lemon peel

Use a casserole pan slightly larger then the pork. Heat the butter and oil and brown onions 1 or 2 chopped garlic cloves some fresh sage leaves and lemon peel. When golden remove from pan.

Add the pork and on a medium high heat braise on all sides till brown. Reduce the heat and slowly add the milk and salt and pepper. Bring to boil then reduce heat to medium and cover with lid slightly open. Cook 1 ½ to 2 hours turning the meat every 30 minutes. By the time the meat is cooked, the milk should have evaporated, leaving a brown nutty sauce. Remove the pork and add the onion and garlic to the sauce in the pan and heat.

Let the meat slightly cool, slice and serve with sauce.

We made polenta to serve as a side with the pork. For this version of polenta we had purchased truffle butter and added it to the polenta. It was unbelievably fragrant. It made the polenta very special.

We took the leftover and make a casserole with it. Take a large ceramic dish, butter and then layer with polenta, sliced pork, the sauce, more polenta. When ready to serve top with grated parmesan and bake at 350 till sizzling.