Kevin's Birthday Dinner

Wine:
LeClaire – Gaspard Champagne Grand Cru Brut
Coup De Foudre Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

We decided to invite Billy and Kevin over to celebrate Kevin’s Birthday. We started with Champagne and served Goat Meat that we brought home from Palate. The goat meat was served as Taco’s at Palate. We just served the goat on crackers. When asked, Billy and Kevin were not able to identify it as goat.

We have been trying a lot of recipes from The Bouchon Cookbook by Thomas Keller. We started with a great salad:
Smoked Salmon With a Frisee Salad With Oranges and Radishes. The salad was a hit. I have never had the combination of Salmon, Oranges and Radishes. We will serve it again!

For the main course we served Short Ribs. We are eating our way through all the meats at McCall’s. They had beautiful short ribs. This is a great winter recipe. The recipe we used was: Short Ribs Braised in Chimay Ale from Judy Rodgers Zuni Café Cookbook. You make it ahead of time and simply place under the broiler when ready to serve. We served the Short Ribs over Polenta. We use the recipe for Polenta that can be found in Judy Rodger's The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.

For dessert we had Chocolate Cake. Yum.




Smoked Salmon With a Frisee Salad With Oranges and Radishes
Saumon Fume Et Salade Frisee Aux Oranges Et Radish

From Thomas Keller Bouchon


CITRUS VINAIGRETTE
• ¾ cup fresh orange juice, simmered until reduced to 3 tablespoons
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 2 Cara Cara (red or pink navel) oranges or blood oranges
• 1 to 2 heads frisee lettuce
• 40 tarragon leaves
• 40 Italian parsley leaves 40 chervil
• 1 heaping tablespoon minced chives
• 12 slices (about 8 ounces) smoked salmon
• 2 large breakfast or Icicle radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced (to get 24 rounds)
• Extra virgin olive oil


Here smoked salmon is paired with bitter greens, citrus vinaigrette, and peppery radishes. Fresh herbs are meant to be one of the dominant flavors, and they go well with all the elements here, so don't be shy about using them. And notice how light the vinaigrette is—just three tablespoons of reduced orange juice, one tablespoon of vinegar, and one of olive oil.

For the vinaigrette: Whisk together the reduced orange juice, sherry vinegar, and olive oil in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cut off the top and bottom of 1 orange. Stand the orange up and use a serrated knife to cut away the peel and pith in wide strips, working from top to bottom of the orange. Cut between the membranes to release the segments, letting them fall into a bowl. Squeeze any juice from the membranes over the segments. Repeat with the second orange. Set aside.

Remove the dark green outer leaves from the frisee and reserve for another use. Cut off and discard the core from the inner yellow leaves. Separate the leaves, trimming the bottoms as necessary to separate them. Wash the leaves and spin-dry. Place 1 1h cups greens (reserve any extra for another use) in a medium bowl and add the herbs.

TO SERVE: Arrange 3 slices of salmon in the center of each of four serving plates, overlapping them, their edges following the perimeter of the plate, to make a large circle.

Toss the frisee salad with enough vinaigrette to lightly coat the leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss in the radish slices.

Drizzle the salmon with olive oil and some of the juice from the oranges. Mound the salad in the center of the salmon and distribute the orange segments among the salads.

Makes 4 servings


Short Ribs Braised in Chimay Ale
Judy Rodgers Zuni Café Cookbook

A simple braise inspired by the stalwart Belgian dish carbonnade
flamande. Chimay is the smooth Belgian ale we use for this dish at Zuni; it has a delicate sweetness, a touch of clove flavor, and only the faintest note of bitterness. Similar Belgian-type ales are made by Ommegang in New York and Unibroue in Canada. A mellow porter is another alternative, as is stout, as long as it is not too bitter.

Choose meaty slabs of short ribs, 3 or 4 ribs each, and have them sawn across the bones into floppy bands. Thickly slice the onions, so they don't dissolve into the sauce.
These are good with browned spatzle or mashed potatoes. Husband all leftover juice and bits of meat and onion to reheat with eggs. You can also make this recipe using large Muscovy duck legs or goose legs.

For 4 servings

About 2-1/2 pounds short ribs, cut across the bone into 2-inch-wide bands (have the butcher do this]
Salt
1 to 2 tablespoons mild-tasting olive oil
1-1/2 pounds yellow onions (about 3 medium], sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 bay leaves
A few whole white peppercorns
A few slices dried wild mushrooms, rinsed in warm water and coarsely chopped (optional)
Up to 1 cup Beef Stock or Chicken Stock
Up to 1 cup Chimay ale or similar Belgian-style ale or a mellow porter or stout About 1/4 cup Dijon mustard

Trimming and seasoning the short ribs (for the best flavor and succulence, do this step 1 to 2 days in advance, or at least a few hours ahead):

Trim most of the fat from the short ribs, but leave the silver skin and tough sheathing around the bones intact. This will help keep the meat succulent and will give body and character to the braise. Salt evenly all over (we use a scant 3/4 teaspoon sea salt per pound of meat}. Cover loosely and refrigerate.

Cooking the short ribs:
Warm the oil in a 3-quart saute pan over medium heat. Wipe the pieces of meat dry. Brown the short ribs evenly and gently on the three meaty sides, about 4 minutes per side. Pour off excess fat.

Rearrange the meat bone side down in the pan. Add the onions, bay, pepper¬corns, the optional mushrooms, and equal parts stock and ale, porter, or stout to come to a depth of about 3/4 inch. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook over low heat, until fork-tender, about 2 to 2-1/4 hours. (You can cook the braise in a preheated 300 oven if you prefer.) Check two or three times to make sure that that the liquid is barely simmering, and turn each piece of meat each time you check. When the meat is done, uncover, prop the pan at a slight angle, and leave to rest for about 5 minutes.

Turn on the broiler.

Skim the fat that has collected at the lower side of the pan. Taste the juice and simmer as needed to concentrate the flavor. Salt as needed. Make sure each piece of meat is bone side down, then brush or smear the tops with the mustard. Set the pan under the broiler, about 5 inches from the element, to browi the mustard and glaze the surface of the onion stew, about 5 minutes. Serve the short ribs very hot, mustard plaster up, with a spoonful of the syrupy sauce and onions.

Polenta
Zuni Café Cookbook

I credit our simple five-dollar bowl of warm polenta with keeping Zuni
alive through the first days after the 1989 earthquake - business was terrible all over town, but we stayed pretty busy, selling many more bowls than usual. Inexpensive, reliable, and comforting, a well-seasoned bowl of polenta is satisfy¬ing by itself, but, soft, grilled, roasted, or fried, it also finds its way into dozens of dishes at the restaurant, alongside, or under, beef, pork, or game birds. In any of its forms, it is great with sausage or bacon.

We use organic polenta ground from a variety of yellow corn called Pioneer. The grits are irregular and larger than American cornmeal, and coarser than most commercial polenta I have seen in Italy. It has lovely flavor, great body, and wonderful texture. (If you use a fine-textured polenta, it will need less water; consult the package for the water-to-meal ratio. It may cook somewhat more rapidly as well.)

There is a persistent superstition that polenta needs to be stirred constantly, but we stir it only often enough to be sure it's not sticking and scorching. Steady, gentle heat and a heavy-bottomed pot will also help prevent that. The light, ten¬der, creamy, slightly viscous texture I prize, and our clients love, is the result of a high ratio of water to meal and long, slow cooking, followed by a holding period where the polenta meal swells and softens even more. This technique means you can make the polenta up to a few hours in advance, which can be very convenient.

Serve soft polenta by the spoonful as a side dish, or by itself in warm bowls with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, mascarpone, or crumbled Gorgonzola and freshly cracked black pepper over the top! Alternatively, serve with a spoon¬ful of rich tomato or meat sauce. Cook at least 1 cup of polenta at a time ~ it is dif¬ficult to cook less without much of the water evaporating before it can be absorbed. Lots of suggestions for capitalizing on leftover polenta follow the recipe.

FOR ABOUT 4-1/2 CUPS, OR 4 TO 8 SERVINGS
5 cups water
1 cup coarsely ground polenta
About 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
Unsalted butter, to taste (optional)

Bring the water to a simmer in a 2-quart sauce pan. Whisk or stir polenta, then stir until the water returns to a simmer. Reduce the heat until the polenta only bubbles and sputters occasionally-use a Flame Tamer if necessary-and cook uncovered for about 1 hour, stirring as needed, until thick but still fluid. If the polenta becomes stiff, add a trickle of water. Taste. Add salt and a generous lump of butter, if you like.

Transfer the polenta to a double boiler set over simmering water, to rest for at least 30 minutes (or up to a few hours, if it suits your schedule). Wrap the lid tightly in plastic wrap and cover the polenta. This will keep the polenta- from developing a skin. If you don't have a double boiler, you can make do by setting the polenta pan on a small, ovenproof ramekin (or any small piece of heat-resistant crockery) centered inside a wider, deeper pot, and surrounding it with just-simmering water. Cover the pan as above.