Chopped Salad and Pasta

Finally lots of tomatoes in the Market! We made one of our favorite pastas. We originally had it at an Italian Restaurant in Los Angeles: Italian Lentil Pasta. When you eat this you would believe you are eating a sauce with meat. There is no meat in the dish. I wish all vegetarian food was this good. We enhance the recipe by using the recipe for Oven Candied Summer Tomatoes from: The Italian Country Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.

We started with an improved version of Chopped Salad. I really want to get the recipe for a chopped salad down and this one is approaching what I want. I hope to make several more this summer. Red Onions, Garbanzo Beans, radicchio, romaine lettuce, cubed salami from The Cheese Store of Silverlake, cubed cheese, cherry tomatoes, and a fresh herb vinaigrette.

Lots of leftover pasta, yea!


Italian Lentil Pasta
=============
From Locanda Veneta in Los Angeles

¾ cups lentils
water
bunch spinach
Oven-Candied Summer Tomatoes
Salt, pepper
1 small bunch Italian parsley, chopped
Dried Oregano
Olive Oil
1 small carrot, minced
1 red onion, minced
1 stalk celery minced
1 lb. Spaghetti
4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Rinse lentils, then cover with water and soak 2 hours drain
2. Rinse spinach and remove stems, keeping some water on the leaves. Saute spinach in skillet over medium heat until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside.
3. Heat 1/3 cup oil in in large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrot, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and celery, and sauté until vegetables are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Add lentils and enough water to come to 2 to 3 inches above lentils. Cook over low heat until lentils are al dente, 30 to 35 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup cooking water. Return reserved water to lentils and set aside.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large saucepan over high heat. Add spinach and tomatoes, breaking them up with wooden spoon. Saute 1 minute. Add lentil mixture and cook 2 to 3 minutes longer.
5. Cook Spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente, about 10 minutes. Strain and pour spaghetti into saucepan with the lentil sauce. Cook 1 minute over high heat, adding butter and Parmesan cheese while tossing.
6. Serve with additional cheese


Oven Candied Summer Tomatoes
=======================

From: The Italian Country Table (Lynne Rossetto Kasper – one of our favorite cookbooks)

2 to 2 ½ lb. delicious ripe medium sized tomatoes
1 cup robust extra-virgin olive oil
salt

Use only the ripe, delicious summer tomatoes. Be sure to “ripen” the roasted tomatoes at room temperature for 4 to 6 hours before eating. Store them covered in the refrigerator up to 6 days. They freeze beautifully for 3 months – they sometimes even taste better for it.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Core the tomatoes and halve vertically. Do not seed. Leave small tomatoes in halves, cut slightly larger tomatoes into 4 wedges, medium ones into 6ths, and large ones into 8. In a half-sheet baking pan, or two 2 ½ quart shallow metal baking pans (not glass or enameled metal), arrange the tomato wedges cut side up, about ½ to 1 inch apart. Coat the tomatoes with oil. Sprinkle with salt.
2. Bake 30 minutes then, lower the heat to 350 degrees. Bake another 30 minutes and turn oven to 300 degrees and bake 30 minutes more, or until the edges of the tomatoes are slightly darkened. If the edges are not yet colored, turn the heat down to 250 degrees and bake another 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the tomatoes from the oven. Cool 20 minutes. Transfer them to a shallow glass or china bowl and pour the oil from the pan over them. Let mellow, uncovered, at room temperature 4 to 6 hours.
3. Layer the tomatoes in a storage container, pouring in their oil, and refrigerate or freeze in their oil in sealed plastic container up to 3 months.
4. Serve at room temperature.

Tandoori Lamb

We are still trying different types of cooking in our Ceramic Egg. We really enjoy Indian food and in the great new Indian cookbook: Indian Home Cooking we found a recipe for Tandoori Lamb Chops. It was a perfect test of our Egg. Once again the Egg came through. In fact we have decided to give away our old Weber Grill. It isn’t needed any more not that we know we can also grill on the Egg. The recipe was delicious and provided lots of extra chops for leftovers.

We made a Saffron Rice to go with the chops.



Gael's Tandoori Lamb Chops
====================
From Indian Home Cooking by Suvir Saran
Burrah Kabab
SERVES 4
Burrah literally means "big," so this is a recipe for people who like big kebabs. (Our good friend Gael Greene, for whom this recipe is named, is a particular fan.) There is a mosque in Old Delhi calied Jama Masjid that is the largest mosque in India. The streets around it are peppered with stalls selling street foods. One such stall is Karim's, one of my favorite places to take friends and especially first-time visitors to India. Karim's is famous for many of their lamb preparations, and this is one of them. I serve these chops at my restaurant Devi, in New York City.
The kababs taste of the warm flavors of garlic, cumin, nutmeg, and mace, balanced by the sharpness of vinegar and lemon. The chops need to marinate overnight to absorb the marinade, so if you spend a few minutes to toss together the marinade the night before, the next night's dinner will take almost no time at all to put together.
Be sure to drain the yogurt for at least 2 hours before using or the lamb will never develop that savory crust during cooking.

2 pounds rib lamb chops, cut 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon toasted cumin seeds, coarsely ground
8 medium garlic cloves, minced very fine or ground to a paste

A 3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced very fine
or ground to a paste
1/4 cup malt vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup yogurt, drained in a cheesecloth-lined strainer or a coffee filter for 2 hours
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons melted butter



Cut three or four deep slashes in each of the chops.

Mix all of the remaining ingredients except the oil and melted butter in a nonplastic bowl large enough to hold the chops. Add the chops and toss to coat in the marinade. Put the chops with the marinade in a large, resealable plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.

Heat the grill to a high temperature, or heat a grill pan for 10 minutes over medium-high heat.

Add the oil to the bag with the chops, reseal, and massage the bag between your hands to oil the chops. Remove the chops from the marinade. Grill the chops for 5 minutes on each side; let rest 5 minutes off the grill, then brush with the butter and grill 5 more minutes on each side.

Our Favorite Tomato Pasta

Every summer we wait for the tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market to be plentiful.
Finally there are a lot of great tomatoes. When they appear we ALWAYS make this recipe from Italian Country Cookbook: Penne with Tomato and Balsamic Vinegar. It is absolutely simple and delicious. The key is getting great tomatoes. We buy a variety of heirlooms. The Pecorino Cheese from The Cheese Store of Silverlake was particular good. The KEY to this dish is to use good quality Balsamic!

We started with a Caesar Salad. We use the recipe in The Zuni Cookbook.

Penne with Tomato and Balsamic Vinegar
=============================
From: Rogers and Gray: Italian Country Cookbook

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into slivers
1 handful fresh basil
1 – 28 ounce can peeled plum tomatoes (we used fresh heirloom tomatoes, of course!)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 ounces penne pasta
8 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, at least 10 years old
6 tablespoons butter cut into pieces
1 heaped cup pecorino or parmesan cheese, grated

Heat oil in large pan and gently sauté the garlic slivers until lightly browned.
Add a few of the basil leaves and then the tomatoes. Stir and cook gently for 30 to 40 minutes, until reduced to a thick sauce. Season with salt and pepper and add the remaining basil.

Cook the pene in salted water, drain thoroughly, and return the pasta to the sauce pan along with the butter. When the butter is melted, add the balsamic vinegar and toss over gentle hear for a few seconds until the penne has turned brown in color.

The in a handful of grated cheese, and finally stir in the tomato sauce. Serve with more cheese.

Zuni Chicken - Yum!

Bea joined us for dinner. We decided to make Zuni Chicken. When we visit San Francisco we ALWAYS have this chicken at Zuni. There are several recipes for the chicken that Judy Rogers has published. They are all very similar. This is the first time that we had made a chicken in our Ceramic Egg. The result was fantastic. Just look at the crisp brown skin! Fabulous!

It was a warm night and we ate on the deck. We started with a salad of cherry tomatoes and Burrata Cheese with Truffles. I think we would use regular Burrata next time. There wasn’t a big enough Truffle hit in the Cheese for our taste.

We then had the incredible Zuni Chicken with the warm bread salad that it is served with.

For dessert we leveraged an idea from a dessert that we had at LA Mille. We Crumbled a Ginger Cookie and topped with Dolce De Leche Ice Cream.

We all are looking forwards to the left overs! Great dinner. The Egg Rules!

The Article from the Los Angeles Times on how to make Chicken is linked below.
I have posted it to the web.

Zuni Chicken

The Best Gratin!

We had lots of the wonderful smoked Sirloin left over from the 4th of July dinner so we decided to just slice some down and eat it at room temperature. Bea joined us bringing some great wine. We started with a salad but the real hit of the night was the cholesterol loaded Potato Gratin!

We have eaten many times at Lucques and love the cookbook of Sunday Nights at Lucques, but somehow we had missed the potato Gratin recipe in the book. Cathy says “She will NEVER make any other gratin recipe”. This is quite a statement but it is that good! Of course, bacon is my favorite seasoning, and that goes a long way to explain why it is so good. The caramelized onions also are a treat! It really helped that we have an electric meat slicer, it works perfectly on the potatoes and makes it easy to cut thin ones uniformily.

For dessert Cathy Sautéed Cherries and served them with the now famous Ginger Cookies from The Cheese Store of Silverlake.

Potato-Bacon Gratin
===================
1/2 pound slab applewood-smoked bacon
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced onions (about 1 pound)
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons thyme leaves
2 1/4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled
About 2 cups heavy cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

This potato and bacon gratin was created by Rob Chalmers, a chef de cuisine at Lucques who had a great love of food and a big Boston attitude to go along with it. When he first told me about this gratin, 1 thought he was joking. That much fat in one pan might put even me over the edge. But lo and behold, bacon, potatoes, and cream really do taste good together!

Preheat the oven to 350°
.
Cut the bacon into 3/8-inch-thick slices, and stack them in two piles, then cut the bacon crosswise into 3/8-inch even-sided rectangular shapes, or lardons.

Heat a large saute pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat for a minute. Swirl in the olive oil and add the bacon. Cook the bacon about 5 minutes, stirring often, until tender and lightly crisped. Remove to a plate with a slotted spoon, reserving the bacon fat in the pan.
Add the onions, 2 teaspoons thyme, i teaspoon salt, and some pepper to the pan. Cook 15 minutes, stirring and scraping with a wooden spoon, until the onions start to caramelize. Turn the heat down to low, and continue to cook, about 10 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are a deep golden brown. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Use a mandoline to slice the potatoes into 1/16-inch-thick rounds. Pour 1/2 cup cream evenly onto the bottom of a 9-by-9-inch (or equivalent) gratin dish. Place one layer of potatoes side by side, slightly overlapping, on the bottom of the dish. Spread a third of the onions over them and scatter a third of the bacon on top. Arrange a second layer of potatoes, drizzle 1/4 cup cream over it, and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt, a healthy pinch of pepper, and 1 teaspoon thyme. Press the potatoes down with your fingers, letting the cream soak up through the layers. This will ensure that the cream is evenly distributed and coats the potatoes well.
Arrange another layer of potatoes on top, followed by another third of the caramelized onions and the bacon. Drizzle over another 1/4 cup cream, and con¬tinue with two more layers of potatoes. Drizzle with 1/2 cup cream and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper. Press the potatoes down with your fingers again. Scatter the rest of the onions and bacon over the potatoes, and driz¬zle with 1/3 cup cream. Season one last time with 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon thyme, and a pinch of pepper. The cream should cover the potatoes but not be "soupy." Add more cream if the gratin seems dry.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap (yes, it can go in the oven) and then foil. Bake 1-1/2 hours, until the potatoes are tender when pierced. Remove from the oven, and carefully uncover. Turn the oven up to 425°F and return the gratin to the oven. Cook another 20 minutes or so, until the top is nice and golden brown, as in gratineed.

Brisket on the Egg

Wine:

Quivira 2007 Sauvignon Blanc
Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon 2002
Shotfire 2005 Barossa Shiraz
Frog’s Leap 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
Vin Du Bugey-Cerdon “La Cueille”
Movia Sauvignon 2005


We had Bea, Billy and Kevin over for dinner. We wanted try a Smoked Brisket in our egg. We started cooking it (low and slow 200 degrees) at 10am. I had purchased the brisket, of course, from Harvey Guss. It was a giant slab. 12.8 pounds! When it was finished 10 hours later at 8pm surprisingly it was still a little tough. Oye! Bea reminded me to cut it across the grain and on the smaller end it was fine. We decided that we would then braise the brisket. Two days later we braised it in beef stock with fresh tomatoes and it came out perfect! Moist, tender and retaining the smoky flavor. It was a good recovery! We still have a lot of left over brisket and plan to make a pasta sauce from it,

We started with Hummus and Pita Chips from Joan’s on Third. They are just great.

We then had a wonderful new soup. It is from the Moro East Cookbook. The soup is Tomato and Fig Soup. I would never had thought of putting those two ingrediants together in a summer soup. It was fabulous! It is made with fresh and dried figs and the best summer tomatoes. Delicious!

With the Brisket we served the sinfully good Potato Gratin from the Sunday Supper at Lucques Cookbook. Bacon is my favorite seasoning.

For desert we made a Fig Upside Down Cake. Joy and Brenda gave us the recipe. It is easy to make and perfect! The recipe for the cake was in out July 4th blog.

Did I say lots of wine!




Tomato soup with cumin and figs
===============================
From Moro East by Sam & Sam Clark
This soup is based on a recipe from Fra Juan's restaurant in the monastery of Guadalupe. It is strictly a summer dish, an interesting Spanish twist on a classic tomato soup. While serving this soup at the restaurant, a waiter over¬heard a customer say it was the best tomato soup she had ever had. Of course, it was a moment when the ingredients did shine. It was at the beginning of August, after a heat wave, and British tomatoes tasted as good as they get. The allotment figs were superb, too. It's a thrill to find recipes that have been cooked for hundreds of years, but in the end this means nothing unless the ingredients are at their peak.

Serves 4

6 tablespoons olive oil
1 kg flavorful tomatoes, roughly sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
150-300ml water
3 garlic cloves, chopped
a little caster sugar (optional) ^
2 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly toasted in a pan, then crushed
5 or 6 ripe, plump fresh figs, finely diced
400g tin of chopped plum tomatoes, drained of juice (we used fresh tomatoes)
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, to serve
lOOg dried figs, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over a medium heat, add the onion and green pepper with a good pinch of salt and cook gently for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the garlic and continue cooking until sweet and golden brown. Add two-thirds of the cumin and cook for 1 minute more. Now add the tinned tomatoes and dried figs and simmer gently, uncovered, for 50-60 minutes, stirring now and then. When the mixture is rich and concen¬trated, put in the fresh tomatoes and increase the heat slightly, then simmer for 15 minutes more. With a handheld blender, whizz until smooth, then pour in enough of the water to achieve a consistency like double cream. Season well with salt, pepper and sugar if necessary.

Stir half the fresh figs through the soup and use the rest to garnish each portion in the bowl, along with the remaining cumin and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Pork Loin in the Egg

Wine:

Coenobium Vendemmia 2006
Mea Culpa Ranina 2005
Rose de Loire NV
Edizione Pennion 2004 Rutherford-Napa Valley Zinfandel

We decided to buy a smoker and do some serious smoking. We purchased a large ceramic egg. The walls are an inch thick and it holds the heat (and smoke) and moisture while the meat slowly cooks. It is very different from a traditional Weber made of metal (and mucho heavier).

For our first attempt at using it, we invited Bea over. We knew should would be forgiving of any problems and we would have plenty of wine to drink if things went badly.

Bottom Line as they like to say. It worked perfectly. We cooked: Herb-Crusted Pork Loin Roast from License to Grill by Chris Schlesinger. It was delicious and moist and smoky and tender!

We started with Grilled Bread (on a Panini maker) topped with Burrata and Pesto.
We knew Bea loved Farro (as we do) and we made a delicious Roasted Beet Farritto from The Babbo Cookbook. The beets at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market are very sweet right now.

Once again for dessert we had those great Ginger Cookies from The Cheese Store of Silverlake.



ROASTED BEET FARROTTO
======================
Adapted from "The Babbo Cookbook" by Mario Batali (Clarkson Potter, 2002)
Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
1 bunch beets, about a pound, scrubbed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups farro, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses or saba, unfermented boiled-down grape must (sold in specialty food shops)
1/2 cup brown chicken stock or half chicken, half beef stock
Parmigiano-reggiano, for grating.
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Trim tops off beets, drizzle with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Wrap in heavy-duty aluminum foil and roast until tender, about 45 minutes. Cool.
2. Bring 3 quarts of salted water to a boil. Add farro and cook until just tender, about 20 minutes.
3. While farro cooks, peel beets, cut in two and slice in half-moons 1/4-inch thick. Place in a bowl and toss with pomegranate molasses or saba.
4. Drain farro, and place in a skillet with stock. Add sliced beets, and toss over high heat until most of the stock is absorbed and farro is tender, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve, topped with grated cheese.
Yield: 4 to 6 first-course servings.





Herb-Crusted Pork Loin Roast
===========================
From License to Grill

1 cup roughly chopped mixed fresh herbs: and combination of parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary, basil, oregano, and / or marjoram

¼ cup minced garlic

1 to 2 tablespoons red pepper flakes, depending on your taste for heat (we used ½ teaspoons)

¼ cup freshly cracked black pepper

¼ cup olive oil
1 – 3 to 4 pound bone-in center-cut pork loin roast, chine bone removed


Build a fire in the grill and arrange to cook via indirect heat.
In a small bowl mix all ingredients and rub the pork loin generously with the herb mixture.

Cook covered trying to keep the heat in the covered grill at about 225 to 280 degrees. Cook 2 ½ hours to 3 hours until the internal temperature of the meat is about 150 degree.